The lion the snake and the Dragon
by pottermaster97
Summary: Post-war, you have to beat the rain to find the rainbow and in picking up the pieces Hermione Granger might just find something she never knew she needed, how one mistake could change the world. Dram - JK OWNS EVERYTHING YOU RECOGNISE- Thank you for the honour of your time (M to be safe)
1. The Lion, Snake and the Dragon

**Chapter 1**

The red steam engine sits peacefully in the middle of the hectic station with children and parents running, yelling, laughing and chattering all around. I sit on one of the many benches just silently waiting for others to arrive. To be honest I didn't know who I was waiting for. Harry Ron and Ginny were coming back for 7th year after the war but I hadn't spoken to them all summer.

I, Hermione Granger had changed significantly over the past 4 months (since the end of the war). For one my hair was now slightly darker and fell in smooth curls down to my waist. I looked more tanned and was skinny, taller and more confident. As well as that I'd been made head-girl this year, which means I get to have my own dorm! My parents had died shortly after the war, a car accident or something, so I had inherited their house, where I had been staying all summer with my son. Oh that's the other thing that's new about me. I have a beautiful son, he is 1 year and 2 months old. I had hidden him while I was away fighting the war as it was the only way that I could ensure he would be safe. He was also the reason that I hadn't seen my friends all summer; they didn't react well when they discovered that I had given birth before we left to fight the war.

Soon enough I would have to face the whole school, I could only hide my son for so long, but I was ready for the truth to finally come out. Currently my little boy had a glamour charm on him making him look just like me; there were a few people I had to tell about him before I could take it off.

"Hermione!" The yell snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked up to see a flash of red hair before I was gently enveloped in a hug.

"Oh hi Ginny" I said trying to sound positive. Apparently she was ignoring the harsh words she had shouted when she first discovered about my little boy.

"How are you?! Sorry I haven't been in contact, I was an awful friend, especially when you really needed me!" she blurted quickly

"It's okay I understand you were shocked. I take it the other two haven't come around yet?" Ginny sighed and shook her head slightly. Her head turned to my son and she smiled.

"He's so cute! I take it he has a glamour charm on because he definitely didn't look like this when I met him" she chuckled as he reached out a tugged her hair. "Har Har" They both laughed at the baby's attempt to speak.

"Does the father know?" it was my turn to look guilty and shake my head now. "He needs to know Hermione, and Harry and Ron will come around soon I just don't think they want to understand how it all happened." I nodded in understanding.

The whistles began to blow as the steam chocked from the engine. Ginny and I leapt onto the train as it prepared to move. "Are you and Harry still dating?" I asked, Ginny smirked and nodded proudly.

"We've never been in a better place, it's been amazing!" I nodded sadly, feeling incredibly disconnected from my best friend of 7 years.

"Why don't you go and find him? I've got to get to the head's compartment soon anyway." I lied quickly. If I told the truth I didn't need to go to the head's compartment until we were a lot closer to Hogwarts. Ginny beamed at me, "Are you sure? And I knew you would be head girl!" I smiled and nodded and watched her head off to find Harry and Ron, secretly wishing I could go with her.

"Come on baby, looks like it's just you and me for now." I muttered to my son whose wide eyes blinked at me innocently before he giggled. I smiled; he always made me smile no matter what mood I was in. It didn't take long to get to the head's compartment since I was close to the front of the train anyway. Someone was already sat in there before I opened the door.

The head boy was sat quietly reading so I took a moment to study. He definitely seemed different; his normal hard eyes were softer but looked tormented in a way. His old confidence appeared hidden, and he seemed to be enjoying simply being alone. He looked up as I slid open the door and a shadow of his former smirk returned. "Hello Granger, and whose the little guy?" his silvery eyes sliding across to the boy in my arms. I was shocked by his pleasant tone but decided not to question it.

"Oh hi Malfoy, this is my son Scorpious" I replied popping our bags on the seat and setting Scorpious on the floor so he could stand, he stood still for a second before bouncing on his tiny feet in excitement.

"How old is he?" Malfoy questioned as I sat down allowing him to stand holding my knees a little longer.

"14 months" I replied watching as his eyes widened and he muttered something to himself before looking down at the ring on his finger. He looked back at me.

"He's mine isn't he?" He spoke at last, I considered lying to him but quickly realised there was no point and nodded. "It all makes sense now!" I looked at him confused he caught my eye and opened his mouth.

"My ring use to be a plain pearl because it's my birthstone but recently it's been getting more and more ruby stones in it which is his birthstone!" all I could do was nod in response looking at him in shock. Why was he being so nice?

"Hey Scorp" he smiled looking down at the little boy before holding his tiny hand and leading him over to his lap before scooping him up and sitting him on his knee before bouncing him up and down. I smiled and watched as they both looked happier than I had ever seen either of them.

"Why is he under a glamour charm?" Malfoy asked suddenly, looking up from Scorpious, while waving his wand revealing Scorpious' real appearance that was very much like Draco with blonde locks and relatively pale skin. His eyes, however were a startling purple.

"How did you know?"

"Babies eyes have a blue rim around them if they are under the glamour charm" he replied simply now gently rocking scorpious to sleep.

"I wasn't going to tell anyone who the father was for a while" I replied looking down at the floor.

"Oh, I understand I mean with the war and all… I'm really sorry by the way, my father made me say all of those things, which I know is no excuse for my actions but I wish I could make up for it all." He spoke as though his life depended on it. I sighed realising how much pain was behind his normally cold eyes.

"How about for this year we try and let go of all the pain and hurt and try and focus on all the positive that have happened, like that little guy in your arms?" I replied making my final decision, he looked at me clearly shocked and agreed silently.

The rest of the journey went peacefully with Scorpious finally asleep I was able to sit back and appreciated the fact that Draco Malfoy really had changed and was more than willing to be a good father.

I decided to avoid mentioning my other secret for now since I really needed to do a bit more research before I shared that information. During the feast Madame Pomefry looked after scorpious and I picked him up before Professor McGonagall led us to the head's dorm, warning us that House unity would be crucial and that she expected us to get on. Draco was still holding scorpious for me as we walked through and saw our amazing common room…

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed the first chapter please comment and let me know what you think!


	2. A lunch and a dinner

Chapter 2: Settling in

The walls were stone, the sofas in front of the huge roaring fire were a deep red , there were bookshelves lining the walls and two study desks in the corner. A gold rug graced the floor and the gold curtains sat gloriously against the walls. The windows looked across the lake which was currently reflecting the castle's many lights. There were several portraits of old heads as well as headmasters including Snape and Dumbledore. I notice Draco guiltily avoiding looking at either portrait and decide to pull him towards the kitchen.

I stop in amazement there are dark black tiles surrounding the walls and everything is either green or silver. Including the green metal breakfast table. The fridge is silver and the kettle is a mixture of both green and silver again there was a large window which I presumed looked over the grounds.

"This is amazing" I whispered running upstairs with Draco following lazily behind me trying not to wake the peaceful scorpious. I gaped as we walked into my room. The wooden floors led to a large canopy double bed with golden and red covers. There was a door leading to the largest walk in wardrobe I've ever seen and a soft fluffy rug. There was a large window seat that I was desperate to read on already.

There were two other doors. One led to a white tile bathroom with a shower and bath, a simple sink and a toilet which, to my annoyance also led to Draco's room. (Turns out Draco's room was the same as mine with green and silver colouring.) The second door led to Scorpious' room which mixed the golds and greens perfectly with the reds and silvers. He too had a large window seat, several toys and the most amazing crib as well as a few little drawers for his stuff and a small built-in wardrobe for his clothes. This too led to Draco's room, which made me smile thinking that at least if scorpious woke me up he'd also wake Draco up. I watched as Draco carefully placed Scorpious into his crib, placing the softest kiss on his forehead. "Night my little dragon" he whispered, before turning to me shyly smiling. "Well, it's been quite the day Granger so I'm off to bed, see you tomorrow."

"Night Draco" I replied turning and casting a spell so my room would act like a monitor for scorpious, I left the door to his room open and changed quickly before curling under the warm quilt a drifting into a peaceful sleep.

***2***

Draco's Prov

I woke around 6 am the next morning, struggling to sleep through the nightmares that held my thoughts. I went straight to scorpious' room and lifted him high into the air before placing him on my hip as he giggled madly. I poked my head into granger's room and saw her sleeping peacefully. I quietly shut the door and waved my wand changing Scorpious' clothes so he was now wearing tiny jeans, a green slytherin hoodie and amazingly cute trainers. If I may say so myself, he looked adorable. Good thing green suited my son. Although I must admit his shockingly violet eyes shocked me, I'd only ever seen one person with violet eyes before and couldn't understand how Scorp had gotten them.

If I was honest I was truly shocked about having a son and was still slightly ashamed that Granger had been too embarrassed to even tell me she was pregnant, although I can't blame her my actions that year were definitely more than questionable. I'm just glad that the war is over and that mother and I both survived, now we can live the life we always wanted to, I never hated muggleborns or half bloods in fact it made no difference to me what someone was born as, I was just too much of a coward to stand up to my father's orders and to fight back against his beatings.

I grabbed one of scorpious' toys, the little lion, and carried him downstairs to feed him. I looked away as I walked past the portraits of our two previous headmasters napping in the common room. I harboured so much guilt for both of their deaths that even looking at them made it hard for me to be happy. It didn't take me long to find scorpious' food but it took quite a while to get him to eat it as he refused to open his mouth unless I made train noises from exactly the right distance away from his mouth. Just as fussy as I use to be, little tyke. I quickly cleared up and threw on a new grey hoodie since scorpious had spit food down my other one. It was a beautiful morning so I thought a walk to the lake would be fun, being sure to grab the lion and leave Granger a note telling her where we were, I scooped up scorpious and headed towards the ground.

Once we were outside I plopped him on the ground and held his hand letting him totter with me towards the lake. He was so cute my heart just swelled with pride whenever I saw him. I was determined to be the best father possible to my little son. I had missed out on a year of his life and I didn't plan on missing much more of it. Once we finally reached the peaceful lake I set up some magical barriers around myself and Scorpious to make sure he couldn't get hurt. Then as he stared around in amazement I charmed his little toy lion to jump around and play with him. This kept him busy for a while, laughing and smiling.

"Dada! Li Li" he giggled, I stared at him in shock. He just called me "dada!" I couldn't be more proud. He was definitely going to be a daddy's boy. "Yeh Scorp, that's a Li Li" I replied watching him chase the lion. Oh this boy was making me go soft already, I could feel myself becoming gentle and careful around him, desperate not to hurt him in anyway.

After a little while scorpious grew a little tired so I put him in between my legs and levitated bubles over to us from the lake so he could reach his little hand forward and pop them, something he enjoyed immensely. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was nearly nine, time had certainly flown by.

As I walked back into the castle with scorpious on my hip, we stopped in the memorial room, which had been built shortly after the war. Lining the wall were hundreds of portraits of all the people lost during the war. I looked across them with sadness as it dawned on me how many of the deaths I had witnessed and how many people I had known. The thing about war is that you don't really get to grieve but when it ends you're drowned by a sudden wave of guilt and sorrow. It's meant to be survivor's guilt but unfortunately I had other reasons to be guilty. I gently rubbed my bandaged arm where my dark mark once sat. As I stood here watching many of the portraits sleep scorpious drifted off on my shoulder. His energy never lasted for many hours, so I decided to walk him back up to the head's dorm for a rest.

Just as I rounded the corner to the head's corridor, I heard Hermione jump out of the portrait hole, crying scorpious' name, clearly she hadn't read my note. "Granger, what's wrong?" Her wild eyes met mine and the switched quickly to scorpious' sleeping form.

"Oh my god, scorpious you're safe. What were you playing at malfoy? I thought someone had taken him, I thought he was in danger, I thought…" she paused glancing at me nervously. I narrowed my eyes as I realised what she had just stopped herself from saying.

"You thought I had tried to kidnap him!" I growled glaring at her. She nodded weakly.

"I just worried where you both were without telling me" she mumbled, furious I slotted scorpious into her arms.

"You are unbelievable Granger, your whole speech about moving on from the past was a load of rubbish! I try spending one morning with my son and you think I'd attack him. Oh no! he's wearing a slytherin jumper too! I've basically tortured him right there, I mean who would want people to know their son was related to the death eater!" I yelled flicking my wand so that his jumper flicked to a simple grey Hogwarts hoodie like the one I was wearing, I stormed past Hermione to the portrait hole.

"And if you bothered to look rather than running around like a headless chicken you would have realised that I did leave you a note!" and with that I clambered through the portrait hole and stormed to my room locking it behind me.

_Stupid Granger, ruining my perfect morning, and to think I thought that I would be lucky to get a chance with her just yesterday! _ I thought to myself angrily as I paced my room.

_Should've known that people don't let go of the past that easily. _I grabbed one of the books off the bookshelf and sat down on the large window seat to read it. Reading always calmed me down…

****** 3hrs later ******* Lunch time*******

I heard Granger leaving for lunch and decided to head down to the slytherin common room to wait for Blaise and Pansy. I was in no mood for lunch today and at least Granger couldn't trouble me in there. The great hall was buzzing with energy as I strolled down to the dungeon knowing that Blaise and Pansy wouldn't stay at lunch for very long.

The thing most people didn't know about me, Blaise and Pansy was that we were best friends and always had been. It was only because the Zabini's didn't agree with Blaise becoming a deatheater that we all were prevented from hanging out but now that the war was over we were free to do as we wished.

I sat across one of the Green armchairs in front of the fire, noting how much warmer it felt in here this year, probably because all the kids in slytherin were finally being given the chance to prove we weren't all evil, especially since it had turned out that Snape was the greatest spy Dumbledore had, something which even I wouldn't have guessed.

I heard the portrait hole open and lent my head back to see if it was Blaise and Pansy.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy!" Yep that was pansy alright.

"Yes Pansy Rosetta Parkinson?" I countered sweetly earning myself a smack across the head.

"You got Granger pregnant and never told us?!" Pansy yelled, sitting with blaise on the other sofa. I sat up quickly and stared at them. "How do you know that?" I asked frantically.

"Well, mate when Granger shows up to lunch with a baby which is wearing a green slytherin hoodie and the only slytherin missing from lunch is you, it didn't take long for the whole school to figure out who the daddy was." Blaise explained quickly.

"Oh, that must have taken some guts." Blaise and Pansy nodded in agreement. "Yes I slept with Granger in sixth year, only once but I found out yesterday that she had hidden the pregnancy and gave birth to scorpious July before the war." I explained quickly.

"Hang on a minute, that means you slept with her when we were dating!" Pansy said doing the maths in her head. I nodded, "Well, come on pans we were never really dating, just sleeping together every now and then" she rolled her eyes, knowing what I said was true.

"So what are you going to do about the baby?" Blaise interjected.

"Well obviously I'm going to help raise him, I'd never walk away from my own son."

"It's ironic that you ended up with a half-blood son" Pansy chuckled, I scowled.

"You knew I never felt like that and besides, maybe if people see me helping out they won't think of me as just a piece of crap on their shoe." I mumbled. It was true that I didn't care too much what people thought of me, but I would care less if I wasn't constantly beaten with the same stick as my father.

"Well, then I suppose congratulations are in order mate, when can we meet him?" I stared at them shocked they really wanted to meet him.

"Umm, I suppose you can come round to the head's common room with me at dinner, so I'll see you later, I just want to go and find Granger." I smiled as the nodded and began to walk away before turning around.

"Oh and Pansy you can't really be mad at me for keeping secrets when you're dating my best friend without telling me." I smirked as Blaise began to splutter and Pansy glared at him.

"You told him!" she shouted, Blaise began shaking his head and blubbering.

"No but you just did" I laughed before walking out leaving Pansy glaring at my back.

I couldn't believe what Granger had done, essentially ruining her reputation in the school just as a way of apologising to me. As I walked into the common room I noticed her sat on the floor playing with Scorpious.

"That must have taken some guts Granger" I spoke as she turned to look at me. She stared hopefully, "You were there?" I shook my head to which she looked a little disheartened.

"But my friends didn't waste any time telling me all about it, and I wanted to say thanks. It's something I wouldn't have been able to do."

"There's more" she added quietly.

"What do you mean?" I asked looking into her chocolate eyes. She gave a smirk that almost matched mine.

"Well, at the moment everyone is just presuming that Scorpious is your child. I want them to know that he is, so tonight he's eating with you"…

Thanks so much for reading ! Hope you like the story so far, please comment and let me know ! Also a massive shoutout to **Shaymars **xoxo


	3. School starting and regrets

**Chapter 3: School starting and regrets**

Draco's

For some reason I was nervous as hell as I walked downstairs with scorpious, he was now wearing a red Gryffindor jump (which was my idea) and was ready for dinner. Granger was walking next to me quietly thinking to herself, I noticed she did that a lot, it was almost like she was hiding something. Something that was bothering her immensely. We had decided it would be best if we showed up to dinner together, that way it would be clear that we were working together as parents.

The hall hushed as we walked in. Every single pair of eyes was on us, and then slowly the muttering began. I had expected this and realised how hard it must have been for Granger when she was doing this on her own. I turned to her and smiled ignoring the whispers of "Oh my god he's going to kiss her!" and "Oh god how can she stand that close to him".

"I'll see you later Hermione, there's a seat next to Ginny by the way." She nodded looking gobsmacked that I used her name and dreamily wondered over to Ginny who had the biggest grin on her face. My eyes moved across to Potter and Weasel who were both scowling at me. They were obviously such crap friends to her, I bet she's been there through everything for her but they run at the first mistake she makes. I smiled at them and nod, chuckling at how angry it made them look. Then I made my way with scorpious over to a beaming Blaise and Pansy.

They both love kids, as weird as that sounds coming from a bunch of scary old slytherins. "Oh he's so gorgeous!" Pansy cooed as I popped scorpious on the bench next to me wrapping a protecting arm around his back. Blaise chuckled as Scorpious instantly started banged everything he could touch. I cut up some chicken into tiny squares, grabbed some bread and placed a bottle of milk in front of him. Scorpious instantly went for the milk smiling widely, while I attempted to eat one handed.

"So I thought we couldn't meet the little guy until tonight?" Blaise said barely taking his eyes off of him. "So did I until, Gr-Hermione asked me to take him for dinner time. I think it's her way of apologising for something that happened earlier" Blaise and Pansy nodded, knowing that I would explain when we were alone. After a few minutes of silently watching Scorpious munch on some chicken occasionally going to throw a piece, Blaise spoke again.

"His eyes, who does he get those from?" Blaise muttered pointedly.

"Apparently Granger's family had purple eyes or something, not something you see very often." He nodded and we all finished eating in silence. After a little while scorpious began to fidget a little, clearly bored with eating dinner. "I've got to get him back to the common room so do you two want to come back with me?" They both nodded eagerly and got up. "Can you guys wait in the entrance hall while I go and get Hermione"

Again all eyes were on me as I wondered along to the Gryffindor table smiling at scorpious. I stopped right behind Hermione who slowly turned clear conscious of all the eyes watching her. "Hey Hermione, I'm just taking scorpious back to the common room, would you like to come?" Hermione looked at a smiling Ginny and the rest of her scowling housemates and nodded. "Sure" she whispered quietly, getting up and saying goodbye to Ginny. The moment we left the hall the full sound of chatter echoed around the entrance hall. We walked over to where Blaise and Pansy were at the bottom of the stairs.

Once we got back to the common room we spent hours just talking and laughing about our favourite memories and happily avoiding the topic of the war. It was surprising how well Granger got on with Pansy and Blaise. Eventually Pansy moved onto the topic of Hermione and I.

"So, how did you two end up… you know?" she asked awkwardly, Hermione and I looked at each other awkwardly as if debating which one of us should answer.

"Well, I was wondering about the castle late at night, worrying about the stupid task Voldemort had given me and I found Granger crying in one of the towers. She didn't want to talk much but eventually she confessed to me that she had seen weasel kissing Brown and well…"

"One thing kind of led to another." Hermione finished for me.

"Did you ever regret it?" Blaise asked suddenly looking at us both. I glared at him, to be honest it was something I had wondered myself but also something that I would have never asked. I looked carefully at Hermione.

"Well, I didn't really regret it, especially when I got to hold scorpious for the first time, but I was worried about Draco telling anyone before I had the chance to and for a short while, when I thought he was nothing but a heartless deatheater, I thought he had done it to spite Ron and Harry…" She whispered a little uneasily, I looked at her concerned.

"I'd never do something like that out of spite, I hope you know that. Everything I do is for a reason." Suddenly this moment was feeling very personal, she nodded shyly and we sat in silence for a few moments before Pansy pipped up, "Where was he during the war?" Hermione smiled at her shifting the subject.

"He stayed with Draco's aunt Andromeda shortly after he was born. Handing him over to her was the hardest thing I ever had t do but it was also the only way I could ensure his safety." She replied thoughtfully.

"We're both here now and that's all that matters." I sighed wrapping an arm around her shoulders which she stiffened at initially before settling into it. Blaise shot me a very curious look, one that I chose to ignore.

"Anyway guys I'm off to bed it's getting late." Hermione excused herself gracefully. Blaise and Pansy both got up to leave as well. "Hey Hermione" Pansy called out, Hermione turned looking shocked, "Yes?"

"We should hang out again sometime soon" Hermione gave a bright smile and nodded before turning and going to her room. I saw Blaise and Pansy out and headed to my room, after all school started again tomorrow.

*******Next day*******

Hermione's P.O.V

I was so glad to have Draco's help this morning as by the time I was ready he had already dressed, fed and delivered Scorpious to Madame Pomefry. If he hadn't been there I probably would have been late.

It was such a relief to be back at school, I could concentrate all my energy on school and Scorpious and ignore all the constant whispers and glares I was receiving from the rest of the school. On the way to class, Draco and I had agreed that, Draco would have scorpious in the mornings and I would spend lunch with him and then take him with me to the library, until dinner when I would hand him back to Draco who would take him for the evening so I could get my school stuff done and then we would both put him into bed.

Right now I was playing with him as I walked to the library. Once I sat down I put a muffliato spell around us so we wouldn't disrupt anyone, then I charmed his little Lion to play with him while I started some of my homework, it took slightly longer to do since I had to keep stopping to keep Scorpious entertained but seeing his smile made it worthwhile.

I was shocked to see that Draco wasn't at dinner, it was the first day and he was already messing with the schedule! So I sat and fed Scorpious before I heard a whisper of excitement behind me.

"Finally got what was coming to him… stupid deatheater." I froze, they had to be talking about Draco. Was this why he wasn't at dinner? Without eating a bite I stood up scooping scorpious into my arms and hurried out of the hall. I pulled out my wand and mumbled a spell before saying "Find Draco" and felt the familiar tug. It was in a deserted corridor on the second floor that I finally found him in a heap on the ground. Iplaced scorpious on the floor and conjured up some reigns so he couldn't hurt himself and knelt down to Draco. He was bloody and bruised and quite clearly out cold. I levitated his body behind me and walked slowly so Scorpious could totter for a bit. Once we reached the stairs I hoisted him onto my hip and made sure to hold Draco still before heading to the 6th floor where our common room was. I was concerned for Draco he must have taken quite the beating, something which I never thought I'd say.

Once in the common room I placed Scorpious in his –play pen with his lion and levitated Draco over the sofa. I knelt beside him and took in his peaceful features. _He's even gorgeous when he's asleep… wait what am I thinking?! _ I began to heal some of his injuries starting with the cuts. I did a quick revealing spell which showed that his wrist was smashed up badly. I healed it as well as I could before placing it in a tight Brace. Once he was left with only a few of the deeper bruises and his Braced wrist I pulled him out of his 'sleep'. He groaned as he awoke slowly looking around.

His silver eyes met my chocolate ones and we stared in silence for a second before his smiled, a true honest smile, before whispering a "Thank you"

"What happened Draco?" I asked sighing at the state he'd gotten himself in.

"Boot, he came for a fight, not a magical one a muggle one." He replied shortly. I looked at his black eye and bruised cheek bone (His ribs were bruised worse than either).

"Surely you've fought without a wand before?" I asked shocked to think he might not have been in a 'muggle fight' before.

"I didn't fight back" Again his response was short but I quickly gathered there was something he wasn't telling me. I eyed him to which he looked away lifting himself to a sitting position with his one good arm before clutching his head.

"Why not? You always fight back" He studied his brace in silence for a few moments quickly discovering that his wrist would not move.

"He needed someone to take his anger out on, clearly I was that someone." Suddenly it all made sense. Not fighting back was Draco's way of punishing himself for the guilt he still harboured over the war. For the first time in my life I pitied Draco Malfoy, finally understanding that he had suffered just as much as the rest of us, if not more.

"You don't have to blame yourself for everything you know. You didn't deserve this." I replied looking directly into his silver orbs. He didn't reply just led back down, holding his wrist and slowly drifted off to sleep. I knew that one day he would be ready to talk about the war, but like Harry, his day had not come yet.

I took Scorpious off to bed and finished my own homework before slipping into bed and falling into an uneasy sleeping. A sleep riddled with dreams of the father of my son and all the horrors he had suffered.

******* 2AM******

I was awoken by shout of pain, and hurried into Scorpious' room before realising the shouts had come from downstairs. I hurried down my staircase and by the light of the fading flames, saw Draco tossing in his sleep.

"No, please, I don't want to do this."

"Mum! Please stop hurting her, I'll do anything, just stop hurting her."

"Please be okay mother, you'll be okay, we'll get through this."

I shuddered at his words and gently shook him awake. "Draco wake up, it's okay, it's over now." He stared at me in silence his breathing heavy. "Come on let's get you to bed." I whispered helping him up to his room. Soon he was tucked into bed and was beginning to drift off, when I got up to leave.

"Please… don't go… just stay with me." I turned and sat on the windowsill next to his bed.

"I'm not going anywhere it's okay Draco get some sleep." I saw the silhouette of his head nodding slightly before his breathing became steady once more. I led across the window seat with its many pillows and felt myself drifting off into a deep sleep.

_What did he suffer during the war?_ I thought to myself as I drifted off, I knew one thing for sure, while I didn't know now, I would find out and I would help him overcome his nightmares.

******************************8

THANK YOU FOR READING! WHAT DO YOU THINK? DO YOU FEEL FOR DRACO? OR IS HERMIONE TRUSTING THE DEVIL TOO SOON? LET ME KNOW ! NEXT CHAPTER IS WAITING FOR VALIDATION XOXO


	4. Fight back or leave

Chapter 4: The Warning

Hermione's P.O.V

I had the pleasure of giving Terry Boot a month's worth of detention and taking 50 points from Ravenclaw for attacking the Head Boy. Draco didn't take very long to heal but the attack had certainly had an effect on his dreams for the first two weeks I ended up sleeping on his window seat every night but then they slowed down a little. Unfortunately I had another issue, Boot wasn't only the first person to attack Draco.

Second came Ernie and Justin from Hufflepuff, they didn't get very far though Ernie only got a few punches in and Justin got a couple of kicks, that was when they were stopped by McGonagall. They lost 50 points for Hufflepuff each and also got a month's worth of detention. I was angry with Draco who once again refused to fight back. As far as I could tell he thought that by fighting back people would think that he hadn't changed, something that he was determined to prove otherwise.

However as I sat in the Hospital wing with Scorpious on my lap today I really was at the end of my tether. Today's attack was probably one of the worst both emotionally and physically. Today it had been Ron. He had seen Draco drop off Scorpious at the Hospital wing and clearly they had shared a few cross words, before Ron lost it, punching, kicking, stamping, hexing… the full works. He'd even continued after Draco was out cold. I had to cast a spell to knock him off of Draco when I found him. Again 50 points gone and a month's worth of detention. All that Ron had uttered was "He didn't fight back, why didn't he fight back" clearly quite shocked at his own loss of control. I was fuming with Ronald and told him that if he ever wished to speak to me he'd have to sort himself out before quickly levitating Draco to the hospital wing. This had to stop, I couldn't keep letting Scorpious see Draco bloody and bruised, what example would that set to him. Draco was an amazing wizard and I knew that he could stop all of these fights in a matter of seconds if he tried.

It was several hours before Draco woke up and Scorpious had fallen asleep on my shoulder. It was evening when I heard his groan of pain. He was put on crutches for a week, Ron had managed to destroy his knee cap and apparently it would take a week of painful rebuilding before he could walk on it again although he would not have to stay in the Hospital wing for that time.

"Hermione, i…" he started weakly but I quickly spun my head and glared at him.

"I've had enough of this Draco and I'm giving you a warning." I hissed quickly, his eyes widened in shock. "If this happens one more time, I will take Scorpious and you will never see him again. It's not good for him to see you like this, the war is over and you need to forgive yourself. How on earth do you expect others to forgive you if you don't forgive yourself?" I whispered all of this very quickly and stood to leave before I heard the softest of whispers.

"I'm sorry"

"Sometimes sorry isn't good enough Draco" I whispered sadly, again turning to leave.

"Please don't take my son" I froze at these words and noted the pain in his voice. Of course I had no intention of taking Scorpious for him if he just stopped allowing himself to be beaten to a pulp every few weeks. After stopping for a moment I swiftly took Scorpious back to the head's Common room, he needed as much sleep as I did.

******The Next Morning*******

The next morning I was glad that Draco had to wait until breakfast to get dismissed from the hospital wing as it gave me chance to get both myself and Scorpious ready for the day before he had chance to get back to the Common room, in fact by the time he arrived in first lesson Scorpious was already with Madame Pomefry and I was avoiding his eye. I didn't mean to hurt him more than I already had but I needed to show him how serious my threat was. So today he would not get to see either me or Scorpious and then tonight, hopefully he'll promise to start fighting back, which is what I knew would end the fighting all together.

We had all the same lessons together but when he tried to catch my eye I avoided his, and when he waited for me after class I sped past him, glad that he was on crutches and couldn't keep up. I spent break and lunch in the hospital wing with Scorpious and was lucky that by this point he had realised that I wasn't going to talk to him and had decided to leave me alone.

After lessons I took Scorpious to the room of requirement and made him a play area which kept him quiet while I did all of my homework. Every so often I stopped to feed him or to check on him but before long I was done with my homework and had read notes for tomorrows lessons. I rocked Scorpious to sleep and placed him in the crib that was in the room. It was only 8pm at this point so I grabbed a book and read for a little bit. At around 10pm I gently took the sleeping Scorpious and carried him to the Head's Common Room.

Draco was snoozing on the sofa when I walked in, so I quickly went and put Scorpious in his crib. When Draco heard my steps coming back down the stairs he awoke and sat up looking slightly broken. "Hermione…" I stopped him with a simple hand and came to sit on the sofa with him.

"How was your day?" I asked, already guessing his answer.

"I missed my family" His response was simple, but he stared at me, his eyes pleading me to speak to him.

"I wanted to show you that I was serious about my threat Draco. Scorpious missed you a lot today and to tell the truth so did I, but that doesn't mean I won't stand by what I said Draco, so right now I'm asking you to not make me tare this 'family' apart" I said air quoting the world family. I suppose that's what we were but it felt strange saying it.

"I promise you it won't happen again, today made me realise how much I need you and Scorp in my life. You're right I need to let go of the past and let others forgive me by forgiving myself. I truly am sorry Hermione." I nodded and smiled.

"I'm going to bed it's been a long day." I whispered.

"Hermione could I stay with you tonight, on the window seat or something. I don't want to be alone tonight." I simply nodded allowing him to follow me.

Once I left a space for him in my bed he awkwardly got in, lying there silently. I wasn't about to let him sleep on the window seat while he was on crutches. He needed a good comfortable bed to lay in. After a few moments of silence, I whispered; "Goodnight Draco"

A few seconds later I heard a gentle "Goodnight Hermione" and settled down for the best night's sleep I had had in weeks.

************Thanks****************

Thanks for reading, sorry this chapter is so short I just wanted to clear up some Draco issues and add to the relationship between Draco and Hermione in the quickest way possible. Let me know what you think ! XOXO


	5. The Christmas Ball

Chapter 5: Christmas Ball

Draco's P.O.V

Three months had passed since the start of term and today was the last day of term. There was to be a ball tonight, alcohol would be over-looked past 11pm and the train wouldn't be leaving until Sunday 18th, so that we could all recover and would have time to pack.

All the girls had been desperate to buy their dresses when they found out about the ball and Hermione still wouldn't let me see hers. We had fallen into the perfect rhythm over these months of who was taking Scorpious and when, we hardly ever argue and I suppose you could consider us friends. If I told the truth I liked her a lot but I could never admit that to anyone, not yet anyway, I was far too cowardly for that. She's really helped me over the past few months. She's been there to see away every one of my nightmares and helped me to gain back a lot of my previous 'swagger' as she calls it. The big difference being that now I had the swagger without the rudeness, a change which I was far too happy to accept.

It had been her threat to leave that had done it, I couldn't even breath thinking about a life without my son and well, a life without her either. Although even now I get the feeling she's hiding something from me always pouring into mysterious books and running off to the library at random hours of the night.

It didn't take long for me to prove I was back to my old self either, Boot came for round two, weeks after weasel, only this time his little posse joined him. It didn't take long for me to have all five of them sat on the floor rubbing their extremely sore heads. Needless to say I didn't have to worry about being attacked anymore and it was worth the detention I got. Potty and Weasel still hadn't spoken to Granger so now she spent most lunch times with weaslette and most dinner times with me and Scorp. Blaise and Pansy had been fantastic recently, they both loved Scorpious and often asked to take him, giving Hermione and I some time alone together. As well as that they had been as welcoming as possible to Granger and I think that they would even consider themselves friends with her. Pansy often hung out with her and weaslette and both of them had really helped Hermione with the taunting she received, being called a slut by the girls and the boys always trying to corner her for a makeout session. Even I must admit that Weaslette is amazing with the bat-bogey hex, one main reason I had decided not to get on her bad side recently.

I was taking Hermione to the ball tonight, it was a rule that the heads must go together, something which I for one was looking forward to. Blaise, Scorpious and I had been banished from the common room for today in order to give the three girls a chance to get ready so right now we were just chilling in the library and Scorpious was creating his next piece of art. Recently we had discovered that crayons and paper had become one of his favourite activities, plus it kept him quiet while Blaise and I had a chat.

"So you excited about taking Granger to the dance tonight?" I rolled my eyes at his blatant way of asking if I liked her. "Just another dance isn't it?" I replied casually trying to annoy him.

"Come on mate, this is your chance to wow her! We both know you like her so why not just go for it?" he blurted clearly releasing everything he'd been quietly pondering. This was the whole reason he had come today.

"Don't know if you noticed Blaise but last time I 'wowed' her, we ended up with a little more than we bargained for." I muttered gesturing my head to Scorp who was furiously scribbling on the paper in many different colours.

"Exactly look how well it turned out for you!" Blaise chuckled at Scorpious who was sliding his paper towards me and pointing at it.

"What's this baby?" I asked sweetly looking at the colourful blob on the page. He kept pointing at it before smiling widely "Da da!" he spoke before giggling. Blaise roared with laughter at the blob and began complimenting him on how much it resembled me. I rolled my eyes and conjured up another piece of paper and handed it to him which he instantly began scribbling again.

"Yeh he's adorable but still a lot of work, plus the fact I constantly feel guilt over the year of his life that I missed." Blaise sighed looking down at Scorpious' serious face.

"You know that wasn't your fault, you didn't even know about him besides it was necessary to keep him safe!" I smiled at Blaise, he always knew how to cheer me up.

"You're right I'm being a pansy" Blaise smirked as Scorpious proudly held up his new blob.

"What's that one Scorp?" I asked smiling at my son's pride.

"hmm!" he cheered pointing at Blaise as Blaise scowled at the blob. It was my turn to laugh now. Blaise and I decided that since it was now 6 and the dance starts a 7 we should begin getting ready. Having already fed Scorpious we dropped him off with Madame Pomfrey, who was willing to watch him over night, and we went back up to the head's dorm. When we got there the girls were typically nowhere to be found so Blaise and I made our way into my room and began to get ready, despite the fact that we naturally looked amazing, so anything we did now was just adding to our charm.

********6:50pm**********

"COME ON LADIES WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE IF YOU DON'T HURRY UP" I yelled up the stairs for the hundredth time.

"Okay Draco keep your wig on we're coming" pansy quipped as she wondered down the stairs in and emerald green floor length dress that was slit up to mid-thigh on one leg. She wondered across to Blaise, who was muttering something about her being gorgeous, and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

Next came Ginny in a golden dress that went to her knee and was poffy from the waist down, she flicked her red hair over her shoulder and practically ran into Harry's arms and embraced him. He too was whispering compliments to her. He had showed up about ten minutes ago and the room had been very awkward and very quiet.

Next came the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen in my life. Her figure was enveloped in a red dress with a skirt that was knee length in the front and flowed round into a full length dress at the back showing off her beautifully strong legs with her perfect tan. The top gripped her body in all the right places and the gemmed bodice shined in the light. Her makeup was perfect with deep red lips and smokey eyes bringing out the brown in her eyes. Her hair was clipped up at the top and flowed beautifully in loose curls down her back. I could have grabbed her and kissed her right there and then. She smiled shyly as the room went quiet and walked towards me.

"You scrub up well Granger" I smirked as she reached me. She chuckled softly as Potty gapped at me. "Well you don't scrub up too badly either… for a ferret" she smiled widely as I scowled at her, everyone else roared with laughter at the exchange and even potter could help chuckling.

"Oh come on, it was one time!" I whined like a child. "Let's get downstairs before we are late" I whispered back to my normal voice. I placed a hand gently on Hermione's lower back ushering everyone out of the room.

The great hall was decorated very similarly to how it had been in fourth year for the yule ball.

Hermione and I had to kick things off but luckily for us Ginny and Potty and Blaise and Pansy joined us on the dance floor almost immediately and soon it wasn't long before the party was in full swing.

I kept Hermione on the dance floor for as long as possible, I was plucking up the courage to ask her something that was very important. Finally my courage came around during a particularly slow dance. Hermione and I were swaying back and forth when I leaned back and looked into her chocolate eyes.

"There's something I need to ask you" I blurted out quietly so only she could ask, her eyes widened in confusion and she tilted her head slightly encouraging me to continue.

"Well I informed my mother of Scorpious and she sent me a letter this morning…" again she just tilted her head as if wanting me to continue.

"Shetoldmeshewantstomeethergrandsonandhasinvitedyouforchristmas" I babbled as if getting it all out in one go would make it easier. She crinkled up her face in confusion.

"Sorry I didn't catch that" I took a deep breath and went slower.

"My mother would like to meet her grandson. So she has invited you to stay with us over." Again she paused and her eyes widened, clearly thinking.

"At the manor?" she responded, carefully, if I didn't know any better I'd say she was anxious. I nodded in response. "I don't know…"

"Come on Hermione, it'll help keep your mind off of your parents" Again she paused as we continued to sway. After an eternity she slowly nodded.

"You're right, Scorpious at least needs to know one of his grandparents." She pulled into me slightly as we neared the end of the song, clearly indicating that she was done talking about it. After the song we joined our friends at a table and began chatting cheerfully. I noticed how she was a little distracted and hoped that she wasn't too upset about her parents.

At around 11pm McGonagall cast a spell detecting all of the younger students and kicked them out, meaning the real party could begin. The music was now far more upbeat and the alcohol was sneaking out all over the place. Again I noticed that Hermione was deep in thought and decided to go and talk to her.

"Hermione what's wrong?" I asked bluntly as I saw her at the edge of the hall. Her head snapped towards me, her eyes wide.

"Nothing, I was just…er… thinking" I nodded, watching her nervous shuffling for a second.

"I'm sorry for bringing up your parents" I broke the silence at last looking at her features carefully.

"It's okay I just wish that I had known two years ago that I would never spend another Christmas with them. I just wish I could have told them how much I appreciate them." She replied showing her true feelings for the first time as tears welled up in her eyes.

"They knew Hermione, they always know. I'm going to let you in on a little secret, around my birthday each year I spend my time telling every single person that I know how they have changed my life. I think that it has helped with the war and all as it made me know for sure that every person would know how much they meant to me. Every year when I would tell me mother she would chuckle and walk away. This year I finally asked her why she did this and her response was that while she liked hearing me tell her, she never needed to hear it because she saw how much I loved her every single time she heard my laugh or looked into my eyes." Hermione stood quietly nodding, taking in all of this information.

"Thank you Malfoy, you always seem to know the right thing to say." I smiled at her.

"They don't call me the smartest wizard of my generation for no reason" she laughed before turning around and beginning to walk away before she looked over her shoulder.

"No one calls you that." She laughed before leaning towards me and whipping my flask of fire-whiskey from my jacket before taking a swig.

"Hey save some for me Granger, I plan on getting absolutely wasted tonight…

**************Thanks*************

Author's note: Thanks for reading hope you liked this chapter, next chapter is already waiting for validation. Let me know what you think ! xoxo


	6. The Secret's out

Chapter 6: Secret's revealed

Hermione's P.O.V

There was a buzzing that shot pain through my head as I blinked and groaned at the light flashing through the curtain. Oh, why did I drink so much last night! I rolled over feeling dizzy and that's when I felt it. There was a movement next to me. I groaned again trying to see clearly and when I saw the flash of blonde against the pillow next to me I screamed jumping out of bed and clutching my head.

"Oh god Granger would you shut up! My head is about to explode" Malfoy moaned covering his ears and sitting up slightly.

"What in hell are you doing in my bed Malfoy?!" I yelled looking at the clothes strewn across the floor and clutching the light sheet to my chest.

"I think you know the answer to that one dear" Malfoy smirked looking me up and down.

"Get out I need to get dressed" I huffed glaring at him. Again he smirked watching me.

"You don't need to worry, I've seen it all before, twice in fact." I growled at him scowling as he laughed clearly enjoying my embarrassment. I grabbed my wand off the night stand and flicked it quickly and clothes instantly appeared covering me at last. I was wearing black leggings, ugg boots and a large grey hoodie. Glaring at Malfoy I began to storm out of my room, "it's your day with Scorp" I shouted slamming the portrait behind me.

Oh god this would be so awkward! I was about to spend the holiday with him and now I slept with him… again! I decided to go to the Gryffindor common room where I knew he couldn't follow me. The common room was quiet since it was only 9am and most people were still sleeping off the effects of last night. I sat on the sofa in front of the fire and closed my eyes enjoying the peace and quickly found myself falling asleep.

***********9

"Mione?" I stirred as I felt a hand gently shaking me awake. My head was still banging as I sat up slowly. Harry sat next to me on the Sofa and the common room was still essentially deserted.

"Oh hi Harry" I mumbled still waking up.

"What're doing in here?" he asked looking just as good as I felt.

"I made a mistake last night, why did I get drunk?" I asked sighing. I could feel Harry's eyes on me and stared intently into the fire.

"You slept with him again didn't you?" all I could do was nod. "Look, you were really drunk, we all were I doubt either one of you remember it that well." I looked at his emerald eyes which were fully of pity.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" I asked looking at him, realising that this was the first real conversation we've had in months. He looked guiltily at the floor.

"I came to apologise Hermione. It was wrong of me to be so harsh to you after everything you've been through and to be quite honest I miss you. Malfoy's not so bad, at least he's standing up and being a father." He finished still looking down. I pulled his head up and looked him in the eyes before bringing him in for a tight hug and accepting his apology.

"Ron misses you too you know, his pride's just getting in the way at the moment" Harry spoke after a few minutes of silence. I chuckled at him.

"That's the trouble with Ron, his pride always gets in the way." I replied sadly, Harry just nodded knowing what I said was the truth.

"So I take it you plan on spending the day in here, hiding from Malfoy." I nodded slowly smirking as Harry laughed at my petty behaviour.

"What're you doing down so early, was Ron snoring again?" I asked remembering the times that Ron's snoring had woken both Harry and I up when we had shared a tent.

"No actually I was just coming back from the… um… room of requirement" He replied shyly. Before I could respond Ginny climbed through the portrait hole with an apple in her hand. I raised my eyebrow at Harry who quickly looked away.

"You two slept together!" I burst out laughing as they both glowed red while Ginny made her way over and sat down on my other side. She too was wearing a large hoodie, some leggings and a fluffy pair of boots.

"You can't say anything Mione! Hiding in here to avoid accepting the fact you slept with Malfoy." Harry retorted. I glared at him while Ginny squealed next to me. I hit him playfully as I turned to face Ginny who was smiling widely.

"I knew it! I knew you were going to do it!" I rolled my eyes as she rambled on.

"Okay can we please discuss something else, I'd rather not think about last night with the hangover I've got. Speaking of which have you got a potion that will help with that?" Harry nodded before disappearing up to his dormitory to grab it. Ginny just sat there wiggling my eyebrows at me to which I responded with a single raised eyebrow.

After a few minutes we heard a yell from the boy's dormitory and made our way up there just as we heard a very distinctive yell.  
"YOU SLEPT WITH MY SISTER!" oh god, clearly Ron had woken up. As we swung open the door we saw the scene unfurling. Ron, in his boxers, was stood with his wand pointed at Harry. Seamus, Dean and Neville were all sat watching with wide eyes.

"Oh come on Ron, don't do this now." Harry sighed holding onto the vial in his hand. Shuffling nervously away from Ron. Unfortunately Ron lost it and swung a punch at Harry's jaw. After a deafening crack there was just a flurry of fists and shouts. They were brawling in the middle of the dorm.

Luckily Seamus, Dean and Neville sprang into action separating the two friends. Ginny hurried in and was checking Harry's injuries while Neville held him back.

It took both Seamus and Dean to hold Ron back. "Get the hell away from her!" He yelled as Ginny leaned forward and kissed Harry gently to calm him down.

"Ronald Weasley, your sister is old enough to make decisions for herself and you should be happy that she at least found someone who is so nice!" I yelled stomping in front of Ron. His blue eyes flared at me.

"Oh what you mean at least she didn't get impregnated by a death eater?" He shot. That was a low blow… in an instant my hand was against his cheek.

"You really are a prat! At least Malfoy has stood by the mistakes he made rather than hiding the fact he cheated on his girlfriend with Lavender Brown! Now go to the hospital wing." I shouted the last part at both Harry and Ron. Both looked at the floor and made their way out with the other boys between them, still muttering insults at each other. Ginny stared at me as we stood for a moment in the now empty boy's dormitory before chuckling at my capability to make both boys cower.

"You never told me that you two broke up because he cheated on you." She said, barely above a whisper.

"The war had just ended and our relationship seemed to be a bit spur of the moment anyway. I'm glad it's over anyway otherwise this whole Malfoy situation would be a lot worse." As we began to follow the boys to the hospital wing we fell into a comfortable silence.

"So…" Ginny said breaking our silence at last "Is he really as good in the sack as everyone says?" I shook my head at her laughing and hurried through the doors to the hospital wing.

Harry and Ron were already sat on separate beds at the back of the room as we walked in. They were facing each other but neither spoke. Seamus, Dean and Neville remained cautiously between them.

"Honestly boys the last two I'd expect to be fighting would be you two after everything you've both been through." Madame Pomfrey rattled on as Harry and Ron just silently glared at each other. It was always sad for me to see these two fighting. They were like brothers to me and right now the golden trio, was falling apart at the seams.

It didn't take long for them both to look good as new as neither one of them had caused a great amount of damage. Once she was done Madame Pomfrey wondered off to her office leaving me, Ginny and the Gryffindor boys in silence.

"Guys could you all give me a minute with these two please?" I asked. I was met with some confused looks but begrudgingly they all left and finally the three of us were alone for the first time since just after the war. We sat in silence for a few moments before I looked at both of them.

"What happened to us?" I asked, it was a simple question but it was hard to answer we had gone from being inseparable to barely speaking and after all we had been through that just wasn't right.

"You had a kid with the enemy." Ron replied bitterly almost instantly.

"And you cheated on me with a slut." I snapped back earning a glare from Ron, after all lavender was now his girlfriend.

"And I slept with your sister…" Harry interjected quietly. I bit back a laugh as Ron looked ready to pounce again.

"Look Ron what's done is done. You know I love Ginny and would never hurt her." Ron rolled his eyes at Harry's sincerity and looked away stubbornly.

"When did we start letting love get in the way of our friendship?" I asked and watched as both heads snapped back towards me and Ron opened his mouth. "Don't." I warned him, to which he promptly closed his mouth. "We've been taught that love is the most important thing but love should never get in the way of friendship. Especially after all we've been through." Again we fell into a silence.

"I think we need to tell each other the truth. The cold hard honest truth about everything that's been going on since the war." Ron said at last. Harry and I gaped at him in shock before we both burst out laughing.

"You're right Ron, but we also have to promise not to be hurt by the truth." We all nodded in agreement and both Harry and I looked at Ron, allowing him to begin.

"Hermione, I felt betrayed by you when I found out you had a kid with Malfoy, I mean come on he's hated us for years. Not to mention the fact you didn't even feel that you could trust us enough to tell us about the baby." I nodded at him understanding everything he had said. Next he turned to Harry and took a deep breath.

"You slept with my sister. My baby sister, how am I meant to feel about that? I thought you were my best friend for god sake and you go and betray me." He sighed. Harry looked at him pain evident in his eyes. I looked at Harry pointedly.

"Ron, I'm sorry about Ginny, but you don't care that we are dating and you know I've loved her for years, so you can't even say that I betrayed you and I promise right now that if I hurt her you can do what you want but for now you should trust me not to hurt her. And Hermione … I completely agree with Ron, your thing with Malfoy feels like a betrayal. It's like he's got you brainwashed into thinking he's changed when he looks and acts exactly the same. We needed you more than ever over these few months and you just weren't there for us." I scowled slightly before trying not to be hurt by what they both had said, besides the truth hurt sometimes right?

Now they were both looking at me waiting for a response. "Harry, you say I haven't been there for you but you were the one that froze me out. I needed you more than either one of you needed me and you just froze me out, not only was I trying to raise a baby but I was dealing with the fact that the parents whose memories I had just restored died. I needed my friends to hold me when I cried and tell me that everything was going to be okay but you just left all because I made a mistake. If I had left you two the moment you made a mistake our friendship probably wouldn't have lasted past second year but no I was ALWAYS there to support you no matter what." I let out a large breath as both boys looked at me with guilt in their eyes.

"And Ron once you found out about Scorpious I knew our relationship was over, but why couldn't you just break up with me? Why did you let me find you in bed with her? It tore me apart to see you cheat on me so quickly. You made me feel as though it was all my fault, and then you go and tell your family that I broke up with you because I couldn't deal with the memories of the war! That hurt Ron it really did, but I was ready to forgive you and yet you couldn't forgive me for sleeping with someone when we weren't even dating." Again both boys just sat in silence. It was strange how amazing it had felt to get everything off my chest after all these months but now that I had started I needed to say everything.

"And both of you are wrong about Draco, he hasn't brainwashed me and we aren't dating. All we are is friends. He's changed a lot since the war, for example Ron what did you say to me when I found you beating the crap out of him?" I looked at him pointedly, instantly he tried to avoid my eye.

"He wouldn't fight back" he mumbled after a few seconds.

"And the old Draco, would he have let you beat him up?" Both Harry and Ron just shook their heads. "Exactly, he felt so much guilt that he let people physically hurt him to give them some relief from the pain he believed that he had caused. He has nightmares about the war almost every night and I can see the pain in his eyes whenever anyone talks about it, the same pain we all have in our eyes. Remember if it wasn't for him lying to his aunt, we may not have won the war, we were facing death that night and he saved us." Again we sat in silence for a few moments.

"I'm sorry to both of you for everything and while we can't go back to normal right now, we can at least try to fix things so what do you say would you be up for that?" Harry asked looking at both of us smiling, we all nodded and hugged. We weren't the same old golden trio but sometimes change was a good thing.

SUNDAY MORNING

The golden trio had been closer than ever forming somewhat of a barrier between Hermione and Draco for days, she couldn't put her finger on it she was just afraid to face him after everything that had happened. Maybe it was the fear from the fallout of what had happened before but she knew for sure that her heart hurt being away from Draco and in many ways that scared her more than anything. It felt good to have Harry and Ron back on her side and she knew that they still hated Malfoy but she wasn't worried about them doing anything, they had too much respect for her to do that. All she could hope was that they'd stick by her no matter what happened in the future because they'd been through too much to just fall apart.

Hermione's P.O.V

Finally it was time to board the train to get back to London for Christmas and so far I had managed to avoid Draco. I knew I would have to speak to him soon but I couldn't bring myself to do so. The train had just set off and Ginny, Harry, Ron and I were all in a compartment together the other three discussing quidditch tactics while I read quietly. However after a moment the compartment door slid open and Pansy, Blaise and Draco (who was holding Scorpious) walked in. Blaise and Pansy sat down while Draco looked at me. "Can I have a word?" he asked gently I sighed nodding and stood up. Draco passed Scorp to Pansy who started cooing at him and we left the Gryffindors and Slytherins alone in the compartment, which had gone deathly quiet.

"Are you embarrassed that we slept together?" Draco asked the moment I slid the door to the compartment we had just entered shut. I tried to wait as long as possible before answering by sitting down and carefully adjusting my clothes.

"No, I just wish it could have happened at a different time." I replied honestly. Draco sat down next to me, never once taking his eyes off of me.

"I don't regret it either." He replied shortly.

"I just meant that, we've only just become friends and now we have to spend the whole of Christmas with this thing looming over us." I explained trying not to make the situation worse. "Maybe it would be better if I didn't stay with you."

"No, my mother's arranged the whole visit now and besides it's only awkward if we make it awkward. We could just forget it ever happened if that's what you want, but please don't change your plans. Please" he begged, something which I never thought Malfoy's were capable of.

"Okay I'll come but if it's alright I'd like to pretend that nothing did happen I don't want to ruin our friendship after we just started being open with each other." He nodded looking slightly put down but got up as though he was fine. "Come on let's get back before they kill each other." He chuckled leaving the compartment. When we got back to the other compartment Ginny and Pansy were giggling and Blaise, Harry and Ron were in a heated debate about the best quidditch teams.

"Well this is unexpected" Draco muttered to me as he walked in and scooped up Scorpious before joining the boys, bouncing his son on his lap. The rest of the journey went much the same, as long as no one thought about the people they were or the people they had been the boys were able to argue happily about quidditch while me, Ginny and Pansy all watched and giggled, it was a start but it definitely didn't mean we would all be hanging around every day. I could tell that both sets of boys were only being polite for my sake.

When the train stopped I bid my goodbyes to Ginny, Harry and Ron, telling them that I would visit them soon. Both Harry and Ron told me to tell them in an instant if "the ferret" did anything wrong. Then Pansy and Blaise said goodbye and disapparated to their Manors where their parents were waiting, and Draco and I went through the barrier, holding a now sleeping Scorpious I was nervous to say the least. As far as I could tell Draco had only told her that he had a son and was helping the mother out. What if she didn't like me? It was my fault her husband was in jail! Sensing my nerves Draco gently put an arm around my shoulders and led me towards the edge of the platform where his mother was waiting. She smiled when she saw us and stepped forward.

"Miss Granger, it's a pleasure to meet you properly. Although I must admit to it being a surprise that I've had a grandson for a year and a half." I nodded and smiled, gently passing Scorpious being sure not to wake him. Narcissa couldn't take her eyes off of him smiling brightly.

"He is the most gorgeous thing in the world!" she cooed happily.

"Hey!" Draco put in indignantly, both Narcissa and I laughed at Draco who was now pouting. Narcissa rolled her eyes turning towards Draco "After you of course dear" she smiled which seemed to make Draco happier and luckily he didn't see her turn around and mouth "not really" to me, smirking the infamous Malfoy smirk.

We all apparated to the manor which looked a lot less daunting than it did previously. The gardens were covered in an array of bright colours, that emphasised the black stone of the manor with it's large windows and tall structure. "We can give you a full tour later but for now let's get you settled in." I nodded still looking around in awe at the gorgeous gardens.

The moment we entered a tiny house elf came running up to me. "I is Tinky miss, may I take your coat miss?" I cautiously gave her my coat thinking about S.P.E.W, Narcissa watched me before smiling. "You don't need to worry Miss Granger, I freed all of the house elves when the war ended. All of the elves you will meet are working willingly for a wage and holidays." I smiled widely it seems that someone understood how elves should be treated.

"That makes me feel better, thank you Mrs Malfoy." I said looking around at the ornate entrance hall we were stood in with marble floors and creamy golden coloured walls. There was a large marble staircase which split of into two smaller staircases about halfway up and on the wall where the staircase split of was a large family portrait of Lucius and Narcissa with Draco sat in a chair between them all looking thoroughly proud. "Your home is beautiful, it has certainly changed a lot since I was last here, in fact it's hardly recognisable." Narcissa beamed at me.

"Please dear call me Narcissa, or Cissa and thank you, I've been working hard in order to rid this house of the horrid memories it once held. Now you two tell me all about my little grandson as last time I checked he's a little old to have been after the war." I nodded looking at Draco, who looked away nervously.

"Well, it was sort of a spur of the moment thing in sixth year and then Scorp was born on the 17th July before I left with Harry and Ron to um… well for the rest of the year." Draco and Narcissa both smiled at my lame attempt to avoid talking about the events leading up to the war.

"And did Scorpious stay with your parents during the war? Another couple I look forward to meeting by the way." My heart clenched slightly at the mention of my parents, but I shook it off and opened my mouth to respond before Draco cut across me.

"Actually, mother, you won't believe this, but Aunt Andromeda looked after him, throughout the war." Narcissa nodded feeling awkward at the mention of the sister she had rejected for so many years.

"That's awfully nice of her dear, but why didn't he stay with your parents? If you don't mind me asking" Again my heart clenched.

"No it's fine, well when I knew what I was going to do for the next year I decided to put my family into hiding so I made them forget who I was, for their safety, and left him with Andromeda who I knew would at least be able to protect him better against wizards. Unfortunately shortly after the war my parents died." Narcissa gasped and shot Draco a slight glare. He shifted awkwardly and stared intently at Scorpious who was still asleep in Narcissa's arms.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry I had no idea. Now when did Draco find out about Scorpious?" I smiled, thankful that she had changed the subject so quickly.

"I found out on the train to Hogwarts, mother, A bit of a funny story actually. When I saw him he had a glamour charm on but then Hermione told me what month he was born and it all made sense because ruby stones had begun to show up on my pearl ring and that's when I realised he had to be mine." He said looking a little too proud of himself for having figured it out. Narcissa's face had scrunched up. "Let me see your ring for a moment Draco" she replied, despite her calm manner I could tell that something was bothering her. Draco held out his hand and showed his mother the pearl and ruby ring on his finger.

"And you say that it did this on it's own?" Draco nodded finally catching on that something was wrong. "That's not possible…" she muttered, thinking.

"What not possible mother?" Draco asked, his face was also scrunched up like his mother's now. Narcissa looked up startled as if she had forgotten we were both here.

"When you were born your father charmed this ring to change once you had children." Again we both looked at her as though she was insane.

"…and that's what it did do mother." Draco said slowly as if explaining he was explaining something to Scorpious.

"When you had pureblood children." I froze at Narcissa's words and looked at the floor, this could not be happening, not right now.

"But that's not possible, Hermione's a muggle-born." He said looking from his mother to me. That was when he noticed me looking at the floor and his eyes narrowed as he gently pulled my head up so he could see my eyes. "You're not a muggle-born at all are you?" he whispered quietly, his voice calm but his eyes full of anger.

I pulled my eyes away from Draco's silver grey ones and looked at Narcissa who was pacing and gently rocking Scorpious, who was still asleep. Then I looked back into Draco's eyes full of pain, anger and confusion before finally whispering "No" …

********To Be Continued*********

Author's note: Sorry for ending it here! Now you finally know hermione's secret next you will learn a little more about it, let me know what you think! xoxo


	7. Finding a family

Chapter 8: Sometimes the truth hurts

*******Previously******

"You're not a muggle-born at all are you?" he whispered quietly, his voice calm but his eyes full of anger.

I pulled my eyes away from Draco's silver grey ones and looked at Narcissa who was pacing and gently rocking Scorpius, who was still asleep. Then I looked back into Draco's eyes full of pain, anger and confusion before finally whispering "No" …

*******Continued…*******

Hermione's P.O.V

Draco's hand instantly dropped and he spun around pulling his hand through his hair. Slowly he turned back to me and glared, "I should've you're nothing but a liar." He growled before storming out of the room. His little temper tantrum had woken Scorpius who was now crying, Narcissa instantly began soothing him and looked at me with a face that I couldn't read.

"I've got this one you go and deal with him." She spoke gracefully, nodding her head in the direction Draco had gone. I wondered through the door and found myself in the large drawing room where I had been tortured. I drew in a breath as I walked further into the room, it had not changed greatly since I was last here except for the fact the large fireplace was now lit by a small comforting fire. The previous portraits of death eaters were gone and there were several more chairs around the room as well as two giant bookshelves lining one wall. Draco was leant against one of the walls staring intently out of the window.

"Draco…" I started stepping closer to him to which he instantly raised a hand.

"Don't… Don't say anything Granger" he growled again, I ignored him and stepped forward.

"No. You have to hear me out, there's a reason why I didn't tell you" I said taking his wrist in my hand. It didn't take him long to rip his hand back and turn towards me angrily.

"Oh really Granger, go on then I want to hear your amazing reason as to why you keep lying to me, all I've done is try to be here for you and stand by Scorpius but you make it so difficult!" I took a half step back feeling myself getting angry.

"I wanted you to prove that you would stand by me, and by your child no matter what our blood status!" I yelled at him glaring harshly as his face changed from anger to emptiness.

"Oh wow, we're back to this again, you can't let go of the fact I use to call you a mudblood! You're never going to believe I've changed because for some reason you hold back against me!" He too was yelling now.

"You want to know why I hold back against you? Why I didn't tell you I'm a pureblood? Really, you want to know?" I yelled again stepping back.

"Yes!" he yelled raising his arms as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You left me there!" I yelled, in response to which his face screwed up in confusion again. "you told me that you were a death eater with a mission and I was never going to be anything more than mudblood! After we had just had Sex!" I screamed tears forming in my eyes, now he took a step back as though afraid to come any closer.

"Then, I nearly told you about the baby when you got hurt by Harry but you ruined it by letting Death eaters in the castle! It killed me… absolutely killed me to hand my baby boy over to your Aunt but it was the only way I could keep him safe! I had to make that decision alone because you made me feel as if I couldn't tell anyone. Then you just stood here right in this room and watched as I was tortured! She could have killed me and you did absolutely nothing Draco, NOTHING!" tears were rolling down my cheeks by the time I had finished and I ran out of the room yanking the door with all my might. I had to get away from here so I made my way through the maze that was Malfoy manor.

*************Draco's P.O.V

I watched her storm away and scowled. It all made sense now. All that running away to the library, I always knew she was hiding something. I thought about the reasons she had given me and felt a pang of guilt. I had well and truly broken that girl over the past two years. I should have noticed before but she had been different, not just her looks but herself. You could see it in her eyes, the passion and the fight that had been so evident not long ago had completely faded and now she was just lost in a world of horrid memories and pain, and it was all my fault.

Shortly after the door slammed following Hermione's dramatic exit my mother slowly slipped into the room letting Scorpius totter in front of her. When he saw me he picked up his pace and tottered into my open arms for a hug. "She's a strong girl, son, she just broke through one of my magical locks without any effort at all." Mother stated looking shocked. I nodded already knowing of Hermione's extreme powers.

"Why did you lock us in mother?" I asked sighing as Scorpius giggled and stamped his feet.

"I wanted you to sort out some of your issues before this evening. I'm inviting her family over for dinner." I looked at her in confusion.

"Well clearly we won't sort our problems out any time soon. Wait… How do you know who her family is?" she rolled her eyes at me.

"Oh come on dear don't be dim it's clear just by looking at him. How many families do you know with those coloured eyes?" I smirked at her and raised a single finger, she nodded.

"Now I want you down in the foyer at 6pm sharp to welcome our guests. You are also in charge of getting little Scorpius ready. Now I must go and find your friend before she gets lost in this place."

I nodded at her and hoisted Scorpius onto my hip. "I'd start with the Library she always seems to end up in there." I muttered bitterly, to which mother glared at me and swiftly left the room. I looked at the clock and saw that it was already 5pm. "C'mon Scorp, we've got to get you ready." I said, walking towards Scorpious' room which was directly opposite both my room and Hermione's room in the west wing.

*****Narcissa's P.O.V******

Ironically Draco had been right to send me to the library as that is exactly where I found her. She was sitting in one of the many bay windows that were spread across the library. She wasn't reading, just watching the rain outside and silently crying. I walked towards her gently.

"I'm sorry for everything my sister did to you and I'm sorry that my family were too cowardly to do anything about it." She jumped as I spoke clearly too busy crying to have heard me walk in.

"I just d…don't understand h…him. He's al…always so h…hot and c…cold." She sobbed still not taking her eyes off of the window.

"The thing with Draco is that all his life he's had no choice but to show no emotion. So now that he is free to do so he struggles. I know that everything he has done to you has been awful but I think it's time I explain to you a little bit about Draco's version of the war." She still looked out of the window and slowly nodded.

"Draco never wanted to be a death eater. He was forced into it when his father was in prison, he never wanted his mission either but he was given it as a suicide mission by v…Voldemort to punish his father for failing to retrieve the prophecy. Every single time Draco has failed or disobeyed any orders he has been forced to watch as I am tortured. Then it was usually followed by him being tortured. He feels a tremendous amount of guilt over the war."

"I know he use to let himself get beaten up at school, but I helped him stop." She mumbled looking at me at last. "But that still doesn't change the other stuff… he sure seemed like he wanted to be a death eater."

"Trust me, he didn't. The bandage on his arm? It's something I had to put on as he took a poisoned dagger and tried to cut the mark off of his arm. He nearly died but he couldn't stand looking at it. Now every time the bandage is removed it starts to bleed again. I even went to St Mungo's to ask why and the only thing they could tell me was that it would only heal when he allows it to heal." She was staring at me in blatant shock.

"That's why he struggles so much to let anyone in because his whole life people have slowly ripped away pieces of him and I believe that's why he was so upset that you had lied to him and didn't trust him." Slowly she nodded.

"It wasn't just about him. I'm not ready for people to know yet, I haven't really come to terms with the fact that my whole life has been a lie either. Plus I want people to see that Draco doesn't care about blood." I smiled at her good intentions. I waved my wand and slowly removed the rest of the glamour charm that Hermione was under. Not much changed, her hair became a shade darker meaning it was almost black and her eyes changed from chocolate brown to a startling violet, just like her mother's and her son's eyes. Everything else was the same.

"I've been taking the charm off a little at a time to get people use to the new me. I was worried about the eyes they are so evident, I might not change them until I graduate. The last thing I need is another news article about me." She sighed cautiously fiddling with her hair.

"I've invited your family for dinner tonight, they'll be here at 6" Her eyes widened.

"You know who they are?" she asked shocked. I nodded slowly.

"I was the one that gave you to the Granger's, I just didn't know who they became, they were the Ford's when I met them. I'd forgotten about the deed for a long time." She nodded thinking.

"Why was it necessary to take me from my family?" she asked obviously debating whether she wanted the answer.

"It was dark times and myself and your mother agreed, but I can tell you the details later." She nodded, something I had noticed she seemed to do a lot rather than actually answering.

"Come on the will be here in 5 minutes." I said waving my wand which instantly cleared her tear marks, cleaned her makeup and changed her into a smart skirt and blouse. Together we wondered to the foyer were Draco was waiting in a smart shirt and jeans. He smiled slightly at the sight of Hermione. Stood next to him holding his leg little Scorpius was in a smart little black shirt and some light blue jeans.

"I'm sorry" both Hermione and Draco said together after watching each other for a few moments.

"We can talk about it later" Both said before laughing at each other. We all stood in silence for a few moments before the doorbell sounded and Tinky ran in opening the door to Hermione's family.

"Oh my daughter!" I smiled as my dear friend was finally reunited with her daughter after all these years. I watched as her brother walked into the room and gaped.

"Hermione!?" …

**********TBC*********

Author's note: Thanks for reading! Let me know wat you think and I'm sure you can probably guess by now who her family is.


	8. This is me

Chapter 9

"Hi Blaise" I said smiling. I had guessed that the Zabini's were a possibility for being my family. I felt a slight ache that my twin had been kept away from me for so long but at the same time I doubt I would be who I am today if it weren't for the way I'd been raised and I could never forget that.

We all sat down for dinner and it was decided that I would be staying with Draco until the 24th and then returning to my family for Christmas although we would all have Christmas dinner together for Scorpius.

It was also revealed that when Voldemort had found out that Violet (my mother) was having twins he wanted to take them and raise them as assassins. This was because twins had a close connection to the point where they could feel what the other felt and if they worked on the connection for long enough would eventually be able to talk telepathically. So Violet and Narcissa faked my death and hid me to protect both me and Blaise. I felt an instant connection to Violet as she too had been forced to hand away her child to ensure its safety. The key difference being that I had the chance to name my baby boy first. Apparently this was also the reason why Blaise and his mother had tried to stay neutral during the war and was also why she was no longer with our father (Who I found out was in Azkaban with Lucius).

After dinner I said goodbye and promised to meet with them in two days to go for a shopping trip. I had asked for a day to talk to my friends and explain everything that had happened in the past 24 hours.

After the long day, Draco showed me to Scorpius' room so I could put him to bed before he followed me into my room. We both sat down on the bed and looked at each other.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you…" I started before he cut across me.

"It's okay, I get it, it's not exactly easier to deal with. I'm sorry for exploding at you" I smiled

"It's okay. I've got a big day tomorrow so I'm going to bed now. Goodnight Draco." I smiled walking towards my on suite bathroom.

"Goodnight Hermione." He replied softly, shutting the door behind him.

*******That same night********

"_Draco, please don't die, please I need you!" I screamed as I watched his body fall limp to the ground. I pulled the body towards me and clutched his Platinum hair. "C'mon open those silvery eyes for me. Please Draco. Draco! DRACO…_

I shot up in bed as a hand touched my shoulder. "Hermione it's okay, it was just a nightmare. Everything's okay" I looked at Draco's worried face which was lit by the sliver of moonlight shining through a crack in the thick Grey curtains of my room. I wiped my face and was surprised to find I was crying. It had felt so real. But it was just a dream.

"You were screaming my name and crying, thrashing about." He said, I could clearly see he was still worried.

"It's nothing just a nightmare." I mumbled, he nodded before slowly turning to leave. "Please stay a while." I whispered feeling more than ever like a child. He nodded before slipping onto the other side of the bed.

"You know we've got to stop meeting like this Hermione." He whispered smirking. I laughed quietly and snuggled to him, I didn't care that mere hours ago we were screaming at each other. Right here, right now I could forgive every bad thing he had done to me and I just wanted his protective arms around me. Did I like him? I had no idea, for once I had found a boy who challenged me as much as I challenged myself and this definitely wasn't the Draco Malfoy I use to know.

"I don't mind" I muttered as I feel into a deep, safe, sleep.

**********Next day***********

I slowly woke up and felt myself enclosed into a safe embrace. I smiled slightly, I couldn't deny it for much longer, I was falling hard and fast for this boy. It's just a shame that he'll never love me in that way.. Yesterday hadn't been a great day for either of us but for some reason no matter goes between us or in the world around us we always end up coming back to each other. Today was the day I told the Weasley's and Harry about my true identity and to be quite honest I was terrified. What if they hated me? What if they couldn't see past what I looked like? Our relationship was still rocky anyway considering we had spoken twice in the past four months. At least Ginny would accept me either way, I thought smiling to myself.

Slowly I tried to wriggle out of Draco's clasp without waking him, but the moment I moved his eyes opened and silver met purple. I was just about to change my appearance back to how it was when I left school, the Weasley's hadn't let many of their defences down since the war, so I'd barely make it to the garden gate with the way I looked right now.

"Oh, um, I'm sorry Hermione I didn't mean to trap you." Draco mumbled groggily still waking up.

"It's okay you're toasty, I just need to get ready to go" I replied slipping off the bed and walking towards the bathroom for a shower.

After a quick shower I put the glamour charm back on and dried my hair quickly with my wand. A simple flick of my wand and I was fully dressed and almost ready to go. Stepping out of the bathroom I saw that Draco had fallen back to sleep. He looked so beautiful in what was clearly a peaceful sleep, his blonde hair falling gracefully across his face. I decided to go and get Scorpius ready so Draco could sleep.

When I reached Scorpius was not there and began to panic. "Tinky!" I said desperately hoping that the little elf knew that my son was safe. With a small crack Tinky appeared in front of me.

"Tinky, where's Scorpius?" I asked almost ready to cry. Tinky smiled widely and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing instantly that he was safe. I don't know why I worried so much every time he wasn't where I expected him to be I just got a bad feeling when I couldn't see him.

"Miss, Mistress Narcissa is eating with him in the dining hall."

"Oh thank goodness, would you be able to take me there Tinky? This place still confuses me." Tinky nodded and led the way.

"Did you know Miss, the manor was purposefully designed to confuse peoples, that way it would be harder for thieves to go undetected." Tinky stated clearly very proud of the fact that she was so knowledgeable on the manor. We walked through talk dark corridor after, tall dark corridor and I slowly began to understand where some of the corridors led to.

"When Master Draco was a baby I constantly had to go searching for him I did. He was scared of being alone in the dark he was, so I drews him a map. He's the only one with a map to the manor he is." I smiled at thinking of Draco as a young boy scared of the dark. Ironic considering the family he was raised in.

"This is the dining room, miss" Tinky said at last opening the door.

"Thank you so much Tinky" I replied walking in to the large room with its daunting windows and light grey walls, a large mahogany table stretched out across the middle of the room with a chandelier hanging graciously above it. At the very end of the table Narcissa was sat next to Scorpius laughing while trying to get him to eat his toast.

"He's very picky about his food." I said, to notify Narcissa of my presence. She looked up and chuckled.

"Yes, well he definitely gets that from his father, oh the tantrums I had to deal with!" She exclaimed magically zooming a piece of toast around Scorpius until he caught it and instantly put it in his mouth smiling.

"Thank you for getting him ready Narcissa." I said taking the seat next to hers and dishing myself some crumpets.

"Oh that's quite alright I was getting a little lonely so I came to wake you two but you looked so cosy that I decided to take him off of your hands and let you rest." She looked at me with knowing eyes and I instantly felt myself glow.

"Oh, n…nothing happened last night, I swear." I stuttered still blushing deeply.

"Don't worry about it dear, now as I understand it you've got quite the morning ahead of you at the burrow." I nodded, buttering my crumpet.

"Well the floo in the entrance hall is all set up. I believe Blaise will be over at some point to spend the day with Scorpius and Draco, while I go out." She smiled. It was at this moment that I noticed that she too looked a little nervous today. Her composure was the same as it had been yesterday but looking into her blue eyes I noticed a hint of sadness and a hint of… fear? Behind them.

"Oh, do you mind me asking where you are going?" I asked hoping to make her feel less nervous.

"No I don't mind, I'm off to visit my sister. It appears I have to thank her for looking after my grandson for so long. Although I must admit I am a bit nervous as to how I will be received after Bella killed her only daughter. I could never imagine losing Draco, let alone at the hand of a family member." I nodded gravely remembering with sadness how Tonks had been lost to the battle. I too could not imagine losing little Scorpius.

"I'm sure it will be fine, she's your sister, and Andromeda is a very forgiving woman. Besides, it wasn't you who took tonks away from us.." She gave me a weak smile, before feeding Scorpius a slice of orange, which he chewed happily.

"I hope so. I have been the worst sister in the world for so many years but I'm willing to do anything to prove to her that I was wrong, and that I feel guilty." I nodded smiling at her and finishing my crumpets.

"I hope you have a good day Narcissa, now I really must be off, see you later." I said giving Scorpius a quick kiss before leaving. As I walked into the entrance hall the fireplace lit up with green flames and out stepped Blaise.

He smirked at me as we met in the middle of the room. "You off to tell your friends, sis?" I smiled at him glad that of all the families I could have been part of, mine was with Blaise. It made it easier also knowing that they had remained neutral during the war as while I may now be part of the pureblood world I would at least not be stuck in a family full of death eaters, and the death eater that was part of it had essentially been banished from the family.

"I am indeed, wish me luck." I smiled back at him. It was strange how close I felt to Blaise after only a few months of knowing him but I suppose he was my twin.

"You'll be fine. Do you know if Draco is still in his room?" He asked beginning to walk towards the stairs.

"Uh no he's in the room next to his… in my room" I mumbled quietly, he raised an eyebrow at me.

"I don't need to have a little chat with him about sleeping with my sister do I?" he chuckled darkly, which made me question whether he was actually joking.

"No Blaise we didn't have sex, I just didn't want to be alone in this place." I said rolling my eyes to which he visibly relaxed.

"That's fair enough Draco and I were terrified of this place as kids but it's certainly got a much warmer feel to it now. Anyway I'll let you go and speak to your friends, have fun. Oh I almost forgot we are having a new year's party and Mum wants you to invite all of your friends to the manor." I nodded hoping that I would have friends to invite after today.

"See ya sis" I heard just as the green flames engulfed me.

In a flash I was stepping out into the Burrow and was instantly hugged by Ginny. "Oh it's so good to see you!" I laughed and hugged her back.

"Gin I saw you yesterday" I muttered laughing at her.

"I know, I know. So how is it? The manor I mean is it as scary as you remember?" She babbled on and on with questions until I finally stopped her.

"Gin I will tell you everything later but for now I need to tell everyone something so could you go and get your brothers and meet me in the kitchen in five." I said, instantly her forehead crinkled and she nodded, before turning to go.

"The boys are all playing quidditch so I'll be right back."

A few minutes later Mr and Mrs Weasley were sat at the table with Fred, George, Ron, Harry and Ginny all watching me with worried looks.

"What is it you wanted to tell us dear?" Mrs Weasley asked, worry evident in her voice. She really was like a second mother to me, well third in my case.

"I wanted to tell you guys that I'm not a muggle-born, I was adopted." I said as each of the faces shifted from worry to relief to confusion in a matter of seconds.

"How do you know 'Mione?" Ginny asked quietly.

"Well when my parents died they left me a letter explaining that 18 years ago they were given a baby by a lovely woman and were told that I would look exactly like them and magic was explained to them and they said that is was to keep me safe." I explained quickly.

"Who is your family?" Fred and George asked and the same time before laughing at each other and letting out roars of laughter.

"The Zabini's" the laughter stop and every mouth opened in the room.

"Oh this is great not only are you not a muggle-born but you're a pureblood! Does Malfoy know? Is this why he's been nicer to you? Guilt I suppose for his years of pointless torture." Ron asked being the first to recover from my news.

"Draco knows now, he only found out yesterday, so no that is not why he's been nice to me." I replied bluntly. We stood in an awkward silence for a few moments.

"This is wonderful news Hermione, that you've found your real family, but know that you can still consider all of us family." Mrs Weasley said beaming at me.

"Thank you so much Mrs Weasley, I really needed to hear that from you but there's something else. Now this won't be changing until after I graduate but I want you to know first" I said standing and picking up my wand.

"Are you pregnant again?" Ginny asked with excitement in her voice.

"No I am not!" I replied indignantly, waving my wand and feeling my appearance change. After a few seconds of staring Ron huffed and stormed out of the room. I sighed unsurprised at his reaction.

"Oh Hermione, you look so cool! Especially the eyes, I see where Scorpius gets it from now!" I nodded at Ginny smiling brightly. Slowly the rest of the Weasley's joined in on the comments and it looked as if Ron was the only one to not like the new me. Finally I looked at Harry, who had yet to move. Slowly he rose to his feet and came towards me before pulling me in for a tight hug. A tear slid down my cheek as I breathed a sigh of relief.

"You really are beautiful and don't worry about Ron he'll come round." I smiled weakly wondering if it would be true before mouthing Thank you.

"Also I want to invite all of you to Zabini manor for New Year's." I said feeling shy as I had yet to see Zabini manor for myself. They all smiled at me.

"We'd love to come dear, it will be nice to meet your family properly and see in the New Year together." Mr Weasley said as the rest of his family agreed.

"So…" said Fred,

"We hear you have a twin" George continued, both smiling at me while I nodded.

"You'll love it soon enough! We can always feel each other's emotions." George explained, I nodded fascinated to think that Blaise would be able to tell how I was feeling soon. The twins looked at each other before continuing, "And if you bond enough you'll be able to talk to each other telepathically." Fred smirked, as the rest of his family gapped at each other.

"That is why you two always came up with the same stories when you were in trouble!" Mrs Weasley yelled looking angry. We all laughed before falling into a comfortable silence.

"Well I best get back to Scorpius and hopefully I will see you all soon." Everyone nodded giving me another hug before Harry got up to walk me to the fireplace. "I'm glad we're talking again Mione, you have no idea how much I've missed you these few months and don't worry about Ron, he's still being cold towards me too, about the whole Ginny thing." I nodded hugging him.

"Come to the manor on Boxing Day Harry, I'd love to see you for Christmas, Ginny can come too." I blurted realising how much I needed my best friend. "I'd love to come 'Mione and I'm sure Ginny will come she's desperate to and have a nose around. Now get back to your son and I'll see you in a week." I laughed and stepped into the flames before saying "Malfoy Manor" loudly. Words that I never imagined would willingly leave my mouth.

I found Draco, Blaise and Scorpius in the garden having a picnic for lunch by the time I got back. I strolled up and joined them taking a pumpkin pie as I sat down.

"So, the Weasley's and Potter took your news quite well." Blaise said smirking knowingly as Draco chuckled and zoomed some food around Scorpius until he caught it and ate it, much like his mother had.

"Let me guess, you felt my emotions, and yes I can feel your smugness right now." I smirked as Blaise scowled, nodding grudgingly. Draco snickered slyly.

"You should have known it works both ways Blaise." He put in laughing.

"I could get use to this twin thing now I'll always know how you're feeling and I can advise dear Draco here when to avoid your wrath." He shot back, to which I laughed.

"Well who would've thought in a million years that we would all end up as friends?" I said realising how a few months ago these guys were my enemies but now things were moving so fast and I could hardly imagine a life without them…

********Thanks**********

Author's Note: Thanks for reading, Next up Hermione moves into Zabini manor and Christmas comes. Let me know what you think! xoxo


	9. Happy Christmas

Chapter 10: Going Home

Draco's P.O.V

Today was Christmas eve meaning Hermione was moving into the Zabini Manor. I don't think she quite realised that the Zabini's were our closest neighbours but she was about to find out. Although that wasn't the only thing she was doing today. Hermione had got herself a date tonight and it all started a few days ago during our shopping trip…

FLASHBACK

Hermione, Blaise and I were leaving the leaky cauldron as Hermione wanted to take us to a coffee shop that she loved. Our hands laden with bags and of course Hermione had Scorpius on her hip. He was wrapped up in a big coat, gloves and a bobble hat. The snow was thick and we were left trudging through the cold white blanket. Snow was something that was highly unusual in London. We usually got a light layer of snow but not this year. This year we had a thick blanket of magical snow.

Just as we reached the café we heard a thick voice calling Hermione's name as we turned around Hermione squealed and ran to the guy calling her. "Drayton! Oh my god it's been ages!" she said hugging him gently so as not to squash Scorpius. Blaise and I gave each other curious looks before stepping towards the pair who were grinning at each other. I looked him up and down and saw that he had bright blue eyes and sandy blonde hair, he was around my height and well built, I didn't like him.

"And who's this little guy?" The Drayton guy said tickling under Scorpius' chin.

"Oh this is my son, Scorpius, and this is Draco, Scorpius' father and before you ask no we aren't dating, and finally this is Blaise, My twin brother." Drayton smiled at all of us as she introduced us.

"And guys this is Drayton a dear friend of mine from my childhood." I nodded curtly at him and eyed him.

"I believe we've got a lot of catching up to do 'Mione I've missed you since we… parted."

"I've missed you too." Hermione blushed. She actually blushed! It was ridiculous watching this, she was acting like a school girl with a crush. This guy wasn't even good looking. Oh who am I kidding he wasn't bad looking but I look better.

"I'm going to take you to dinner, catch up with you, and wear something nice, a beautiful girl like you deserves a fancy restaurant." Hermione blushed again and nodded.

"I can pick you up if you want." He added.

"No it's fine I don't live at the old house anymore, I'm renting it out since Mr and Mrs Granger died so I can meet you here if you want." Hermione said quietly.

"Oh I am sorry to hear about your parents." I felt Blaise stiffen next to me. "Okay I'll meet you here on Christmas eve at 7pm" Again Hermione just nodded and GIGGLED, as 'Drayton' walked away.

END FLASHBACK

It didn't take Hermione long to pack up and move to Zabini manor so now all three of us, and Scorpius, were all sat in Hermione's room.

There was a huge Queen sized bed and a walk in wardrobe. There was a large circular window seat with many cushions on it. We were sat in a circle on the large fluffy rug in the middle of the room. Scorpius was sat between Hermione and I running his hands over the rug, clearly mesmerised.

"This house is amazing! A little smaller than Malfoy Manor but it already feels like home." Hermione said at last. Blaise and I smirked at each other. "I can't believe you didn't tell me you were neighbours!" I laughed.

"You know we still live a five minute walk away from each other besides you never asked us." I replied looking cocky to which she gently smacked me in the forehead and Scorpius giggled.

"Thanks for helping me move in now, if you don't mind I'd like you to get out. I need to get ready for this evening and leave Scorpius with me I love spending time with my little dragon." She smirked shooing us out. I sighed and followed Blaise to his room.

"I can't believe you're letting her go on this date with a guy you barely know." I grumbled as I sat on Blaise's bed while he shut the door.

"You know mate, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were jealous." Blaise said sitting next to me as I sighed and leaned back.

"I am not, I just don't think we should trust some random bloke." I growled, closing my eyes.

"Okay then mate, but he's not just some random bloke, they grew up together. Plus she's my sister not my procession." He replied clearly smirking at me.

"Don't smirk at me like that Blaise, I can feel it even with my eyes closed. I don't like Hermione as any more than a friend." I replied grumpily.

"Whatever you say mate." Blaise replied before we fell into a comfortable silence.

Hermione's P.O.V

I have a date tonight and I'm so nervous! To tell the truth I was only going to try and get over Draco. It was clear that I was nothing but a one night stand to him (okay a two night stand) and I'd rather have our friendship than lose it by confessing my feelings for him. Although Draco had been a bit off recently, since meeting Drayton, knowing him he wanted to be the only one to ever sleep with me but I had no intention of sleeping with Drayton and Draco certainly had no opinion in the matter. If I was just a good lay to him then I should be free to befriend other people as well.

I sighed thinking about Draco. Why couldn't I be any more for him? I shook my head, determined to rid myself of these feelings.

DRACO'S P.O.V

I was reading in Blaise's room when Hermione walked in, she was wearing a red dress that hugged her body perfectly and her Hair fell in loose curls down her back. She had decided to keep her eyes brown until graduation so that she wouldn't have to deal with all the gossip at school. She looked stunning as she walked Scorpius over and plopped him on the bed next to me.

"Thanks for waiting here for Scorpius I'll see you tomorrow afternoon for gift swapping and dinner." I nodded and smiled while she turned to leave.

"Hermione?" she spun around and her brown eyes met my silver ones.

"Yes?" she asked her face full of confusion.

"You look beautiful." She smiled shyly and mumbled a "Thanks" before hurrying out.

Oh god I'm so stupid, why didn't I just tell her how I felt months ago, now I've lost her anyway.

I sighed looking down at Scorpius "At least I've got you Scorp" he smiled brightly and looked at me with his big purple eyes that always made me smile.

"Me and woo Dada" he said giggling.

"It's Christmas tomorrow, Scorp. Our first Christmas together. I'm so glad you've been in my life this year. Since the war I've really needed some people to make me see that was hope in this life and you are one of those people." I said to him getting my stuff together to go back to the manor.

He just looked at me and giggled.

********Christmas Day*****

The Zabini's arrived at around Midday for Christmas and we went straight into the lounge to share presents. Hermione looked pretty tired and Blaise was smirking when he noticed me looking at her. I shot him a quick glare and turned my attention to my little man.

Scorpius was dressed in a little Christmas jumper and black jeans today and currently had tiny fluffy slippers on. His blonde hair was messy on his head as always and his purple eyes mixed beautifully with his jumper.

Blaise and Hermione were wearing matching Christmas jumpers, hers was red and his was green and both had a snowman on it. I chuckled as my mother passed me the same jumper in blue. I pulled it over my head and sat down with everyone else.

"Why must our mothers make us match?" Blaise grumbled as I sat down next to him.

"Because they like to embarrass us." I whispered turning to Hermione. "So how was your date?"

She looked up and smiled, "It was really good thank you, Drayton is taking me out again in a few days." I nodded, quickly boring of the conversation and started handing out the presents by giving my mother hers, I had found her a musical jewellery box with a picture of all of us laughing and joking on it. She smiled with tears in her eyes and hugged me.

Scorpius was next and I handed him his first present which was a small snitch. He wouldn't be aware but if we tapped it with a wand it turned into a lion and if you tapped again it would turn into a little snake and then back to a snitch. Scorpius giggled and tried to catch the snitch as it flew close to him.

Hermione passed him his next present which was a blanket with his name stitched into it. Scorpius giggled and cuddled it tightly. Next he got a toy broom for young kids which Hermione said he would only be allowed to go on under strict supervision, and a toy wand which made bubbles or snowflakes when it was waved.

Scorpius was beaming and fiddling with everything he had been given while we continued.

Blaise got a boxes of Joke tricks from Weasley's shop, a pair of dragon hide gloves and a new broom.

I got a box of my favourite sweets from Blaise. A photo frame with Scorpius, Hermione and I in from Hermione as well as several books. My family's gifts had already been given to me at the manor (much like Hermione and Blaise had before they had arrived.)

Hermione received a beautiful charm bracelet from my mother, a teddy bear with Scorpius' name and initials sewn in from Scorpius (Blaise had helped me sort it out). Lastly came my gifts. First I had given her a heart shaped locked that when opened showed any pictured that Hermione most wanted to see.

She looked carefully at the next present and opened it. Inside was a tiny mouse toy. Hermione gave me a confused look and picked it up when it dropped out of her hands and turned into a smokey blue kitten that was 8 weeks old. It had purple eyes just like Hermione and Scorpius, it had actually been the reason I brought it when I went to buy one.

"Oh Draco, she's beautiful thank you so much!" she gushed tickling the cat.

"It's okay, I knew how much you loved Crookshanks and you were sad when he died so I got you a new cat. Her name is Aries" I said smiling as Aries curled up in Hermione's lap while Scorpius gently stroked her head.

After presents we all had a relaxing day talking over our favourite memories before going off to eat dinner. It really was the best Christmas I had ever had and made me grateful that these were the people in my life.

*******Boxing Day********

Hermione's P.O.V

I smiled at Aries who was curled up on the end of my bed, sleeping, as I prepared for Harry's visit. What if he thought I was spoiled? I mean I got everything I ever wanted in this house. I loved Aries already she was so incredibly gentle and kind. She hadn't used her claws at all and definitely wasn't vicious. I can't believe Draco had been so thoughtful it was probably one of my favourite gifts.

At around 11am I walked down to the foyer and waited for Harry. Blaise came strolling through in a big jumper and jeans. He smiled as he walked up to me.

"You don't need to be nervous sis, even if the boy-who-lived is about to enter our house." He chuckled coming to a halt next to me.

"Oh ha ha now stop using our little connection to your advantage dear brother." I replied in a sickly sweet voice. He laughed loudly. "Haven't you got somewhere to be anyway?" I muttered, Blaise rolled his eyes.

"Actually no, mother told me that before I go to Draco's I have to help you welcome our guests. I'm bringing Scorpius back with me aren't I?"

"Yes you are and make sure you watch him if he goes on that broom. Also you don't have to help me welcome them if you don't want to." I replied, Blaise snorted at the broom comment and I glared at him.

"In all honesty I want to be here, I've been a bit of a dick towards your friends and now you are my sister, I feel that I should give them a chance." I knew now that he hadn't really been asked to welcome our guests but wanted to make up for his past mistakes, something which I was grateful for. I gave him a small hug as the fireplace lit up with green flames. Out stepped Harry and Ginny both smiling at the image of me and my brother hugging.

"I can see the resemblance between you two now." She smirked as Harry and her came towards us looking around.

"It's so good to see you both! This is Blaise as I'm sure you know." I said gesturing towards Blaise who stepped forward and shook Harry's hand. It felt silly introducing people who had met a million times before but what else was I supposed to do, they weren't really the same people were they.

"I'm sorry for never giving you a chance Potter, a friend of Hermione's is a friend of mine." He said as he moved along and shook Ginny's hand. Both nodded and smirked at me.

"Okay now that we've sorted introductions let's get started." I said turning and allowing the other three to follow me into the kitchen.

"This is Blaise's favourite room of the house and you can often find him in here." I laughed, looking around at the huge oven and marble tops. Both Harry and Ginny laughed as Blaise scowled.

"Yes and normally my dear sister isn't too far behind." Blaise grumbled as we walked through to the large drawing room, which was very similar to the one at Malfoy manor.

Soon enough we had been around the whole house and went to my room to hang out for a bit.

"Okay now that they've had the tour, I'm off to Draco's. Scorpius and I will be back around 6pm so have a good day and I'll see you at dinner." Blaise nodded and left as we walked into my room.

"See you later." I called over my shoulder.

"Your room is awesome 'Mione!" Harry said as we walked in.

"Oh my god this little one is sooo cute!" Ginny said running over and tickling Aries who rolled over and purred.

"Oh thanks it was a gift from Draco for Christmas." I said casually before jumping down onto my bed. Harry and Ginny both raised their eyebrows, before joining me on the bed.

"It's so weird to think that Malfoy is such a big part of your life now." Harry whispered as if he was revealing a massive secret.

"I know, but we've been getting on well and have decided to be friends for Scorpius' sake." I replied as we all stared at my high ceiling.

"It seems like you two are getting on a little better than just friends." Ginny put in and I felt Harry nod in agreement next to me.

"Oh no, nothing more than friends, besides I've actually been going on a few dates with an old friend of mine." Ginny squealed and sat up quickly.

"Details now please!" She practically screamed as Harry groaned.

"We've only been on a few dates but you'll get to meet him at New Year's. He's coming to the party." Again Ginny's main response was to squeal happily.

We had a great day laughing and joking around the manor and Roxy (my very well payed house elf) even brought us some snacks to munch on. In many ways it felt like old times again, with a few changes of course but I suppose certain changes were for the best. Tonight my baby boy was coming back, I missed him so much when he was at Draco's despite the fact that it was only for short amounts of time since we had spent almost every day at each other's houses.

Author's Note- Thank you! Coming up—The new year's party! And returning to Hogwarts.


	10. Fireworks and Firewhiskey

Chapter 11: New Year's

Draco's P.O.V

Tonight was the New Year's Ball at the Zabini manor. It would certainly be a strange New Year considering normally we had a large ball here full of purebloods and Death eaters but this year there would only be The Zabini's, The Weasley's, Potter, Mother and I. Oh and that muggle boy Hermione kept spending time with. Not only were we having a small New Year's but we would be sharing it with someone who last year I would have considered an enemy. It was definitely fitting to celebrate the end of the war.

I was pulling on my smart shirt thinking about how awkward tonight would be considering almost everyone there was going to dislike me. I wanted to talk to Potter tonight. True I had been avoiding him since the war but I think it's about time I thanked him for saving my life, something I definitely wasn't looking forward to.

It was 6pm when mother called me down. We were going a little early to the manor to help the Zabini's welcome their guests and Tinky was going with us to help Roxy look after Scorpius. When I strolled down the stairs Tinky was stood next to mother who was wearing a midnight blue gown with small crystals all over the skirt. Her mixture of blonde and black hair was in a tight bun.

"You look beautiful mother, as always." I smiled charmingly as I reached her. She smiled graceful and turned to leave. We were getting a carriage to next door to make things easier.

"You look very handsome too son." She said as she climbed into the carriage, with me following quickly behind her.

The Zabini manor was lit up with thousands of tiny lights adding to the magical feel that it had on a regular basis. We walked up the stone steps and through the ornate oak doors, which were open at the moment. I smiled at Mrs Zabini was wearing a black tight dress, Blaise was wearing a smart shirt and black jeans also and Hermione was wearing the most gorgeous grey strapless dress that went down to her knees and was puffy from the waist down. It was also covered in silver glitter spots that made it look like snow had fallen all over the dress. Her hair fell in loose curls and quite frankly she looked stunning.

"You look amazing." I whispered as I hugged her. She smiled shyly and I had to remind myself that she was currently in some form of a relationship with that muggle boy.

"Thank you Draco." She mumbled as we watched Tinky apparate off to see Scorpius.

"How is our son doing?" I asked deciding it would be best if I kept the subject to strictly just Scorpius.

"He is well, he's started saying mummy properly now." She replied in a serious manner, I smiled at the image.

"Time to prepare to welcome the guests guys." Blaise said turning me around to stand next to him, beside mother.

It seemed to me that we were all a little over dressed but I supposed that it did not matter too much. The muggle boy, Drayton? Was the first to arrive in his suit his sandy blonde hair gelled back and his blue eyes softly looking at Hermione.

Thankfully the Weasley clan didn't take long to arrive afterwards all hugging and smiling and apologising for the lack of weaslebee who was apparently at his girlfriends for the evening.

Finally Potter and Ginny showed up all smiles. He whispered something to my mother who smiled and nodded before shaking his hand. I looked up confused and walked into the main ballroom which had been decorated beautifully with many colours and loud music. We all began dancing and soon the night was in full swing. I even got a dance with Hermione, certainly one of my favourite moments of the night. What was even better was that there was plenty of alcohol flowing making everything so much better.

The little fairy lights that lit up the room made me feel a little dizzy and eventually my feet were killing from constantly dancing and having fun. I looked around and saw that it wasn't too far from midnight, giving me just enough time to have a look at what everyone else was doing.

Mother, Violet, Molly and Arthur were all in deep conversation with the occasional laugh or hug, something I never thought I would see but it appeared that Violet was thanking the Weasley's for always being there for her daughter.

Next my eyes moved to the weasel twins who were smirking and pointing outside before making explosion motions with their hands. Violet had asked them to be in charge of the fireworks for this evening, something which clearly they were excited about.

Potter and Weaslette were dancing slowly on the dance for whispering sweet nothings in each other's ears. I took a deep swig of my firewhiskey and watched how happy they were, if only I could have a love half as strong as that.

Then my eyes travelled to Blaise who was now swaying with Pansy, who had showed up about an hour ago, again I took a swig of my firewhiskey and felt a pang of jealousy at their happiness.

Finally my eyes rested on the belle of the ball, she was beautiful as she swayed gently against that muggle, her head resting on his shoulder. Taking yet another sip of my Firewhiskey I rolled my eyes at how he gently rubbed her back while they danced, it was almost sickening to watch. The sad part here was that right now I was the only one who was alone, everyone had a partner in crime tonight, making me feel more alone than ever before in a room of people.

"Everyone head out onto the balcony for the fireworks!" The twins called across the room, indicating that we were just another minute closer to the New Year. There was excited chatter as we all spread onto the vast balcony. I stood back slightly, in the corner of the balcony, allowing my friends and family their moment of pure joy. It was at the exact moment the grandfather clock echoed through the house that the fireworks began.

Colours and sparks were flying everywhere. The whole group were smiling and whispering happy New Year to each other, that's when I saw it. There right in the middle of the balcony, Hermione's was locked into a deep kiss with that muggle boy, I really couldn't remember his name, Damon? Darren? I took a small step back as if hit by something straight in the chest. Taking another large gulp of Fire whiskey my vision began to swim slightly but I didn't care anymore.

After a few minutes the fireworks were finished, everyone clapped and slowly started shuffling back inside. Everyone, except for Hermione, the muggle and myself (although I was admittedly in the shadows). Hermione was blushing as they fell into silence for a few moments.

"So… 'mi I take it this means you don't mind being my girlfriend?" The muggle asked his voice soft and caring. Hermione responded with a simple nod and a light peck on the cheek still blushing furiously.

I scoffed and stepped forward as the couple turned to face their intruder. "One little kiss and you've got him wrapped around her little finger." I smirked and watched as they both scowled at me.

"Draco, are you drunk?" Hermione asked, her voice a mix of pity and anger.

"Although I must admit she's a good kisser, she's even better in the sack though, if you know what I mean." I laughed as Hermione's face turned to horror and the muggle stepped forward as if to protect her.

"Yes Malfoy, you have slept with Hermione while I haven't but at least I'll mean something to her when we make it to that point." He replied bitterly. I gave a fake chuckle stepping towards him again so we were practically nose to nose. In truth his comment had stung a bit.

"You won't mean a thing when she dumps your sorry ass and realises she deserves better. I doubt you'll even get that far with her." I growled.

"You're in the past mate, I'm in the present. I'll always be there for Hermione, whether we have sex or not. You did it with her two years ago, so just let it go and move on." I raised my eyebrows as he spat his response.

"Oh really…" I started before Hermione stepped forward.

"Please Draco… don't… just leave it." She pleaded with me. Unfortunately I was past caring right now.

"It was so long ago was it? You didn't tell him did you 'mione?" I smirked as her eyes continued to bore in mine pleading me to stop.

"Tell me what?" The muggle said turning towards Hermione slightly.

"We had sex just 2 weeks ago! In fact we had sex just days before she met you! I mean for all I know she could be knocked up again with my second child. Maybe I was wrong earlier, maybe you two will get to the point of having sex. I mean after all, it didn't take me long…"

CRACK.

I stumbled backwards as Hermione punched me straight in the face with all her might. It was definitely a lot harder than it had been in 3rd year. My vision was blurry but I could still see the party guests running to the balcony as Hermione began to yell.

"You stuck up moron! I never ever want to see your stupid face again. I wish you weren't Scorpius' father because something so good will be poisoned by someone as horrid as you! You destroy every little thing you touch, and you take pleasure in doing it!" She screamed just as my mother stepped forward.

****NARCISSA'S P.O.V********

I hurried forward as I saw my son stumbling backwards and Hermione screaming at him. I didn't catch all of what she said but I stepped forward as Draco stood up laughing through the blood pouring from his nose.

"You always did like it rough Mi" He spat at her, his voice more venomous than I had ever heard it. I stepped forward and grabbed his arm.

"That's enough it's time to get you home." I muttered, before turning to Violet. "I'm so sorry for his disgraceful behaviour, I think it's time we leave but please continue to enjoy the party. I will see you tomorrow. Molly I will write you dear." I said steering a swaying Draco towards the door. Everyone was staring at us in silence.

"See ya soon potter!" Draco yelled cheerfully as we wondered past him. I saw Harry smirk slightly before desperately trying to keep a straight face. I pulled Draco out quickly and once past the wards I apparated us home to save time and cast a spell to stop Draco's nose from bleeding and another to make sure it could only heal the muggle way, unless I decided otherwise. He had after all deserved the punch. I supported him up the stairs and towards him room before whipping off his jacket, shoes and tie and getting him into bed.

"Oh Draco, what on earth has gotten into you?" I whispered kissing his head as he curled into a ball and closed his eyes. I turned to leave and flicked off the light.

"She kissed him mother, she actually kissed him." I froze for a moment at the small whisper, my heart breaking for my son, before continuing out of the door, closing it quietly.

Thank you for reading! Very quick extra chapter for you all thank you so much for the responses! xoxo


	11. I'm sorry

Chapter 12: Consequences.

WARNING SENSATIVE CONTENT WITH POTENTIAL TRIGGERS DO. NOT. READ. IF. YOU. MAY. BE. AFFECTED.

Draco's P.O.V

I woke up with the worst headache I'd had in my life. I groaned as most of the events of last night resurfaced. I picked up my wand changing into my grey Hogwarts hoodie and some joggers before going over to the mirror. I looked horrid. My nose was swollen and red, and both my eyes were black. I waved my wand muttering a healing spell. Nothing happened. I cursed my mother knowing it was her that did this.

Slowly I made my way towards the dining room. At the end of my long table, mother sat eating her crumpets as always. "Good morning Draco." She acknowledged me sharply.

"Not really." I muttered back grumpily.

"Well whose fault is that? You really did hurt Hermione with what you said Draco and today I expect you to apologise to every single guest at that party." Again she was speaking sharply.

"Yes mother." I replied shortly. "Then will you heal this stupid bruise?" She chuckled.

"No, you completely embarrassed me last night, not to mention you ruined Violet's first New Year's with her daughter, so you can let it heal naturally as a reminder of your pure spite last night." I nodded begrudgingly at my mother.

"I'll go and visit the Weasley's first mother and I am truly sorry for my actions." I groaned as I got up my hangover hitting me full force. Mother just nodded in response and watched me leave the room.

I apparated straight to the Weasley's from the manor. Soon enough I was wincing at the sound of my fist knocking on the door. It didn't take long for the door to be pulled open and I came face to face with both Weasley twins who instantly roared with laughter.

"That's our Hermione" Said Fred,

"Throws quite the punch." Added George. Laughing they ushered me in and laughter even harder at my scrunched up face at the lights and all the noise. They led me through to a kitchen and we found all the guests from last night sat down finishing breakfast.

"Sorry to intrude Mrs Weasley." I said, silently begging for a silent dark room to sleep in.

"That's okay dear we were pretty much done, can I get you anything?" Molly asked sending the plates to the washing up as the rest of the family, including Mr Weasley were chuckling at the state of my face.

"No thank you, I actually only came to apologise for my appalling behaviour last night and I'm sorry if I ruined New Year's for you." I replied doing my best to ignore the sensation of being smacked in the face with a baseball bat. Potter was the first to speak.

"You were awfully drunk Malfoy and what you said was downright dreadful, but I'd say Mione did quite a good job of punishing you." I nodded silently thanking him as the rest of the family nodded in agreement. "What has Hermione done to you Malfoy?" Weaslette laughing along with Fred and George.

"What do you mean? I think it's quite clear what she did to me!" I replied grumpily gesturing towards my heavily bruised face. Again Weaslette just laughed.

"I meant the fact that you're apologising." I shuffled awkwardly looking towards the ground.

"Oh, um well, actually it was more my mother." I replied concentrating on not revealing to anyone my true feelings for Hermione. Potter and the others laughed before getting up and shuffling out and leaving me in the room with Weaslette, clearly they thought she should handle this one. I stared at them in utter confusion. How on earth could they find all of this amusing? I looked across at Weaslette, who was waiting in silence for everyone to leave.

Once the room was silent she opened her mouth. "Your mother may have made you come and apologise but she never made you be sincere." She said simply looking deep into my eyes, as if trying to see into my soul. I did my best to remain cold in the eyes but I got the feeling that she knew it was a mask. "She really has changed you, Malfoy. I mean to look at, you have the same cold exterior but there's something about you that really has changed." She said eyeing me continuously.

"I'm exactly the same." I snapped coldly, to which she chuckled.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you had a bit of a thing for our Hermione." She replied and smirked when I showed the slightest bit of shock on my face. "Thought so." She muttered, more to herself than me.

"Yeah well I've royally messed it up now so she won't want to talk to me again." I muttered sadly, Ginny took a step forward and awkwardly patted me on the back.

"If I were you I'd do something that I'm not entirely sure you're capable of." I looked at her inquisitively.

"And what's that?" I asked quietly.

"Grovel" she replied simply before leaving me to stand alone in the burrow's kitchen. I sighed realising how right she was and turned on the spot apparating from the house and off the gates of Zabini manor feeling a great rush of nausea.

As I walked up the gravelled path I saw the door open and Violet Zabini stepped outside. She gave me a cold glare before waiting for me to reach her. "I take it your mother sent you?" She asked frostily.

"She did but I would have come anyway. I am truly sorry for my actions last night Violet. It was wrong of me and very disrespectful, I really don't know how I can show you how sorry I really am." I gushed knowing that if I paused she would stop me. Her eyes shifted from anger to pity and then back to anger in a matter of seconds. I was beginning to feel sick with all the moving and apologising, my head was beginning to spin again.

"Draco, you are like a second son to me and while I don't approve of my daughter's response to you last night," she gestured towards my face, "I can honestly say I've never been more disappointed with you in my life." I recoiled slightly before covering it and blanking my features once more. I also considered Violet as a second mother to me, so to hear that she was disappointed was far worse than any anger she could have ever thrown at me.

"Never have I been more repulsed by your actions and I'm afraid to say that you are no longer welcome in this house as you once were. You ruined my families first ever New Years together and you completely embarrassed both my daughter and her boyfriend. It appeared to everyone that you were purposefully trying to rip them apart after she had just found happiness Draco." I took all off what she said in slowly nodding, had I really tried to rip them apart?

"I'm so sorry Violet, before you kick me off your property please let me apologise to Blaise also." I said looking at her stern eyes which softened slightly.

"Yes you may, he is in his room, but then you must go, and while your mother is always welcome I ask you not to return until Hermione can promise me that everything has been sorted." I nodded gravely and stepped into the house before jogging up the stairs and towards Blaise's room. Just as I raised my hand to knock on the door, Blaise stepped out. He froze when he saw me and his eyes flickered quickly to Hermione's closed door before he fixed me with a cold glare.

"What do you want?" he snapped harshly, I leant against the wall and rubbed my now pounding head.

"Blaise, mate, c'mon I know what I did was REALLY stupid but don't hate me. You're the only real friend I've got I know your bonding with Hermione and that I hurt her a lot last night but come on. I was drunk and made a stupid mistake but look at what she did to me! Mother even cursed me to make sure it has to heal the muggle way so I'll look like this for weeks! Everyone will be reminded that I got beat up by a girl for WEEKS and the last thing I need is you hating me too. I came to apologise for what I did and ask you to forgive me." Blaise scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"There you go again making it all about you. Guess what Draco? It's not all about you! I'm the one who was awake all night feeling my sister's emotions and being able to do nothing about them! She's locked herself in her room ever since Drayton left. She's a complete and utter wreck and it's all your fault! So yes I do hate you right now, I hate you for never letting her be happy, I hate you for getting drunk, I hate you for ruining New Years and I hate you for being so damn selfish all the time." Blaise yelled and I stepped away with him. He had been my best friend since birth (even if we couldn't hang out much before the war) and I had never seen him as angry as he was right now.

"Blaise… please don't do this" I begged, something which, as a Malfoy, I'd never done before. He gaze was still ice cold as he glared at me.

"Just go Draco, you're not wanted here. You can attempt to talk to Hermione on the train back and that is when you'll see Scorpius again and until then I don't even want to catch wind of you trying to contact a single member of my family understood?" Now it was my turn to glare.

"No, not understood. You can't just keep my son away from me!" I yelled back and stepped closer until we were nose to nose.

"If you were truly sorry you would have accepted this but once again it's all fake!" He hissed in my face.

"I am sorry but my son is the only perfect thing I have in this world and I won't allow you to keep him from me!" I hissed back, we both whirled around as we heard a door open and sure enough I came face to face with Hermione.

"Mi you came out!" Blaise said his voice suddenly soft and caring. Hermione seemed to ignore his comment and stepped closer to me her eyes alight with fury.

"Blaise may not have the right to keep Scorpius from you but I do and everything Blaise just said is exactly what I would have said, he's relaying my message as I told him to via the note I stuck to his door this morning." She spat with every ounce of venom she could.

Her eyes were red and puffy, clearly she had been crying for a long time. Her Knuckles were purple but it didn't look like she cared and her glamour charm that was normally constant had broken. I realised how much I must have hurt her for her magic to fail.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry Hermione. I was drunk and I never meant a word of it, if I could take it back I would but please I ask for your forgiveness. I know I hurt you and I am so so so sorry, but please don't take my son away." I was almost whispering by the time I finished and I looked up into her eyes, which for the smallest of seconds showed nothing but hurt before flashing with fury. I was having De Ja vu at this second about the conversation we had mere months ago and remembering made me realise exactly what she would say next.

"I've said this to you before and I'll say it again. Sorry isn't good enough Draco, sorry doesn't fix anything, not now, so get the hell out of our house and don't come back. I'll give you Scorpius on the train. Goodbye." And with that she turned swiftly on her heal and locked her bedroom door behind her. My heart broke a little knowing that my jealousy had ruined everything for me and that I had no chance of her loving me now. If sorry wasn't good enough then I really didn't know what to do.

"Off you go then." Blaise hissed triumphantly waving his arm towards the stairs. I sighed and made my way towards the stairs noting that Blaise was following me. I turned around giving him a harsh glare.

"So much for never letting a girl get between us." I hissed reminding him of our promise when we started school.  
"It's a whole different ball game when that girl is my sister." He replied simply and I saw for the first time his true protectiveness as a brother, albeit a new one and for once I accepted that currently, my best friend hated me, I couldn't see my son and the girl I loved was slowly crushing my heart. Who said love was a good thing again? I looked down at the floor and made my way out of the Zabini manor and to the gates. Blaise followed me to the gates and before stopping.

"I thought you would have learnt in third year that my sister throws a decent punch." He smirked an incredibly spiteful smirk. I ignored him and began walking home. I was not in any state to apparate again since I knew that if I did I would definitely throw up.

Once I was home I stomped up the stairs and threw myself on to my bed being sure that my head was to one side so I didn't harm my already bruised and broken face any further. After a few moments my mother walked into my bedroom and shut the door quietly. I didn't even have to look to know it was her but I pulled my arm up to my face to hide the slight tears rolling down my cheeks. I hated crying it made me feel like the weakest man alive.

I felt my mother sit gracefully on the edge of the bed and slowly she pulled my arm away from my face. "What happened?" She asked carefully, her voice barely above a whisper.

"The Weasley's were okay, in fact they seemed to find it funny but the Zabini's, they were a whole different kettle of fish." I choked out. Mother sighed gently and pulled my face towards her own and I saw the pity in her silver eyes.

"You must have known they would be, emotions were high as it was with their first holiday together. So what did they say?" she asked smoothly before releasing my face from her long fingers.

"Where shall I start? Violet's never been more disappointed in me, Blaise literally hates me, Hermione can't even stand to look at me. I'm not allowed to see Scorpius until we go back to school in two weeks and I am the only person to have ever been forbidden from going to Zabini manor." I said in a rush letting the tears fall as my heart broke further.

"Maybe you should've explained that you were jealous because you love Hermione. It melts a girls heart to know they are loved." Mother replied simply, I stopped and stared at her.

"W…what are you on about?" I asked slowly unsure of how she knew. I pulled my arm down from my face to glance across at her.

"I'm your mother Draco of course I know and besides you basically told me last night." I sighed again wishing I had never gotten drunk. "I think we're past the point of that being helpful." I muttered quietly. "I really have screwed things up. Maybe I should just leave everyone alone." I choked out again feeling sick and running to the bathroom.

"Maybe it'll be the best not just for her but for you too." Mother replied entering the bathroom. "I advise you get some sleep and I'll get the house elf to bring you a potion in an hour to help." She said turning to leave. I watched her go and leant against my bathtub leaning my head back against it. I was just toxic to everyone's lives. Nobody needed me, not really, in fact it might just be easier if I was gone completely.

_It's all your fault…you're not wanted… Sorry isn't good enough._

The short phrases were running through my head again and again making me so dizzy that my vision blurred. Once it came back into focus I looked down at my arm and the bandage that covered what was left of the last time I had hated myself this much. The last time though I needed to get rid of the mark that was taunting me. I slowly began to unravel the bandage and the blood began pouring out. Mother had told me not to undo this for a long while but I needed to feel something and pain was the only thing I deserved to feel.

I watched as the blood began to ooze across my jeans and dripped onto the floor. Finally I saw the great slice missing from my arm and was surprised to find that I was expecting it to be unhealed, as it was. Slowly I smashed a glass dish that was sat on the side of the tub and brought the shard to my arm. I deserved this, I was nothing. Hermione was right I would only ever destroy Scorpius' life, I could destroy the only perfect thing I'd ever known. It wasn't long before I began to feel faint, my eyes began to close and I smiled slightly knowing that I was giving everyone what they wanted. A life without me…

Author's note: Thank you, sorry for the sensitivity of this chapter I thought I would really bring to light Draco's issue with forgiving himself and hurting himself as it has only ever been mentioned before. Mental health is an incredibly hard thing for people to both write about and talk about so remember to check on the people you love and if you yourself are struggling please please reach out to someone. In this life, you will never truly walk alone Much love to you all xx

Next Chapter:

"_Mistress come quick! Master Malfoy is dead!" Tinky the house elf wailed grabbing Narcissa's hand and pulling her towards the terrible scene. Everything went in slow motion for Narcissa as she sprinted towards the bathroom where her son lay…_

PLEASE REVIEW! XOXO


	12. It's ok not to be ok

Chapter 13: Pain

AGAIN SENSATIVE TOPIC PROCEED WITH CARE

"Mistress come quick! Master Malfoy is dead!" Tinky the house elf wailed grabbing Narcissa's hand and pulling her towards the terrible scene. Everything went in slow motion for Narcissa as she sprinted towards the bathroom where her son lay. As she stepped through the door her knees went weak. There against the bath was Draco, blood still pouring from the deepest gash in his arm, he was paler than normal, which was never a good sign. There was a thick pool of blood surrounding him.

Narcissa pulled her wand and through her tears did her best to get the blood back into his body before healing his wound to the extent that it had been healed before and placing the tight bandage back on so that, as long as it stayed on, it would keep him from bleeding further. Then she took off her earlier charm and healed his bruises ignoring the fact that he clearly wasn't breathing. Next she sent a patronus to Zabini manor asking for emergency help from Blaise and Violet asking them to strictly not bring Hermione.

She turned and looked back at her son begging him to breathe as she slowly began compressions on his chest already feeling as though it would be fruitless. "Come on Draco, please my son, I can't lose you" She whispered over and over as she continued compressions through her tears. It didn't take long for the two Zabini's to appear brought up by Tinky and Rosie. Both stood still for a second before rushing over from the door and to Narcissa.

The silence in the room was deafening as Blaise took over from Narcissa on the compressions and quickly found himself covered in what was left of his best friend's blood from the floor. Violet hugged Narcissa tightly covering her face from Draco's lifeless body, her eyes watching her son try his best to help his best friend. Blaise was just staring intently at Draco's face begging something to happen. Everyone was losing hope as they watched Blaise's desperate attempts to save Draco.

Ten minutes later and still nothing had happened. Narcissa pulled away from Violet and reached across to Blaise slowly removing his hands from Draco's unmoving chest. "It's too late Blaise, he's g…gone" she choked resting her hand on Draco's chest and kissing his cold forehead as tears poured down her cheeks.

"NO, he's not gone! He doesn't get to die thinking I hate him! He doesn't get to die!" Blaise yelled tears streaming down his face as he restarted compressions, knowing it wouldn't help. He had to do something to stop the thoughts running through his head, thoughts of him telling Draco how much he hated him, him kicking Draco out of the manor, Scorpius growing up without a father, Hermione's face when she found out, her heart breaking as she collapsed to the floor.

Blaise furiously continued compressions and still nothing happened, both his mother and Draco's were hugging in tears. As he continued Blaise felt arms wrap around his body and pull him off of Draco's body. He tried to resist, he thrashed and he kicked but he felt weak as he stared at the limp body of his friend, and the arms around him remained strong. When he noticed that both mothers were still crying together he turned to face the person who had yanked him off. Harry Potter stood behind him his eyes beginning to tear as he saw the scene around him.

"He's gone Blaise." He whispered gently embracing Blaise. Blaise pushed him off and turned to Draco's body before yelling out in anguish and feeling a surge of energy he turned and punched Draco's chest. The moment his fist hit its target, a purple spell exploded out across the room blinding them all for a second. Blaise had no idea where the power came from but looked down at his fist which was badly cut, burned and bruised. He looked across the room and saw the others blinking around the room.

"Oh my god…" Harry whispered, Blaise turned to see him staring at Draco's body and he turned to look back at the body and was shocked to see that slowly the chest was rising and falling. He went over and felt for a pulse. There was one, slightly weaker than average but it was there. That's when he noticed that on the hand of Draco's sliced up arm there was the Celtic symbol of the moon and star entwined as one.

"That's n…not p…possible." Narcissa whispered, crawling towards Draco whose breathing was already becoming stronger. In shock everyone stayed still for a moment before Harry went forward and lifting Draco magically, he levitated him to the bed where all of the house elves began fusing over him.

"The magic of twins…" Violet whispered to herself. Everyone turned to stare at her. "It's said that a set of twins, if emotional enough can transfer every ounce of their power into another being…" As she said as a very pale and weak Blaise fell to the ground. Soon enough he was in a bed next to Draco's and Hermione was at the door to the room holding Scorpius, she too looked very pale. Clearly she was holding on to what little strength she had left.

"What happened?" She asked coming forward and passing Scorpius to Harry before showing her hand to have the same symbol as Draco's but smaller and close to her thumb.

"You and Blaise just transferred all of the power you harnessed together through to Draco, and saved his life. Your power will come back to its full potential eventually, somehow you managed to push every inch of power through Blaise which is why he passed out. It's incredibly rare there's only been one incident when it's happened before and that was centuries ago." Violet explained amazed at what she had just witnessed. Slowly they all sat in chairs that Harry had conjured and stared in shock, not quite believing what had happened.

"Did you say Draco was dead?" Hermione asked the silence a few minutes later as she cradled a now sleeping Scorpius.

"Draco tried to kill himself shortly after leaving your house, he had succeeded until Blaise punched his chest." Narcissa explained weakly. All of them were in a state of complete shock.

"This is all my fault, I shouldn't have been so harsh on him, I could see in his eyes how truly sorry he was. I couldn't have lived with myself if he had died, I would feel so hollow knowing that I had to raise Scorpius alone, my son needs his father." Hermione muttered as she cried. Harry hugged her tightly.

"Did you feel the surge of power?" Harry asked curiously, clearly trying to change the subject. Hermione shook her head.

"I just remember feeling a wallowing pit of despair, guilt and grief from Blaise and then I blacked out. Then about two minutes later I woke up, grabbed Scorpius and walked here, I tried to apparate but it wouldn't work." She explained.

"You and Blaise won't have any powers at all for at least a week. It's so rare that it is said that it can only ever happen once in a set of twins' lifetime. For all we know your powers could take months to come back, but I remember reading somewhere that it helps if you both stay close to the person you saved." Hermione nodded and, handing Scorpius to Harry, walked over to Blaise, whose eyes flickered open when she took his hand. Slowly she crawled in next to Blaise and both fell asleep within seconds.

"You mustn't tell anyone of these events Mr Potter, Hermione has already said she doesn't want people finding out she's a pureblood until after she graduates." Harry nodded and pulled his chair across to Draco's bed. "You two should get some sleep, I'll stay here and let you know the moment anything changes." He whispered to the ladies who both attempted to protest before rising and turning to leave. "We'll be in the two rooms either side of this one if you need us." Narcissa replied tiredly as she walked over and kissed Draco atop the head. "Don't ever scare me like that again baby." She whispered quietly, before turning and leaving. Harry leaned back and looked quickly at the 3 sleeping forms.

"You really know how to scare the crap out of a lot of people Malfoy. Hopefully now you'll be able to see how many people care about you." Harry whispered as he felt himself drifting off to an uncomfortable sleep.

*******5 days later******

Hermione had gone out to meet with Drayton for the first time as everyone was still waiting for Draco to awaken. As it turned out Blaise too had the little symbol marked onto his hand but his was identical to Hermione's. His hand was now in a cast since no one had been able to heal it, Hermione had taken him to a muggle hospital where they had X-rayed it and slapped a dark green cast on it. He felt completely useless since it was his wand and writing hand, meaning he couldn't write at all which was made worse by the fact that neither his nor Hermione's powers had returned.

Harry had stayed at the manor with both families and most of their time was spent sitting next to Draco's bed and chatting occasionally. The house elves were great, always cleaning and cooking to keep the house running smoothly a few had even cancelled their holiday to stay and help.

Around 3pm Blaise and Harry were sat discussing quidditch while Violet and Narcissa had gone for a walk when at last, after 5 long days there was a groan from the bed. Slowly Draco's eyes fluttered open. Harry sent a patronus to Narcissa and Violet.

"Potter?" he whispered weakly.

"You really are an arse Draco" Blaise said hugging his friend, who winced slightly.

"What ha…happened?" He asked as Harry handed him some water. His question wasn't answered however as Narcissa came rushing in.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, don't you ever do that again! I thought I'd lost you" she cried kissing his forehead and hugging him, earning another whimper from him. "Where does it hurt?" Draco slowly pointed towards his chest taking deep breaths. Everyone slowly looked at Blaise grinning slightly.

"What happened?" Draco muttered again looking expectantly from face to face.

"You tried to kill yourself and to be honest you succeeded until Blaise and Hermione did something weird and there was an explosion of purple light and then you were breathing again. You were dead for like 30 minutes." Harry explained quickly. Draco looked around shocked.

"B…but you hate me for what I did" He said looking at Blaise with confusion. This was the first mention of any argument between the boys for 5 days and everyone stared at Blaise silently.

"I was just mad Draco, I could never really hate you, you're my best friend. Although if you ever make me see your dead body again and make me cry in front of Potter, I will hate you!" He laughed slightly but everyone could tell he had a serious tone behind the laughter.

"We're all going to stay here in this house until you stop thinking that this world would be better off without you. This is not the first time you've tried to kill yourself the only difference is that if it wasn't for the power of twins you would have actually died." Violet stated and everyone nodded in agreement.

"I'm sorry, sometimes I just feel like no one would miss me because of all the pain I cause." Draco whispered shyly. He looked around and realised that Hermione wasn't there, his heart sunk slightly, thinking that she still hated him.

"Well we would all miss you Malfoy, me included, and think of your son. He needs a father and not just any father he needs you. Who else is going to teach him how to hold the Malfoy name?" Harry chuckled, Scorpius was currently out with Hermione on her date. Narcissa left and came back with a guitar in hand.

"Draco I got you this. While you were, um… sleeping. I remembered how happy it use to make you before the war, whenever you were angry or sad you would play and it would help you feel better, until your father ripped it away from you. So I want you to play it again." Draco nodded as Narcissa handed it to him and he plucked a few chords. Instantly he smiled slightly. Everyone stood around and watched as he began to play a beautiful tune as though he had played yesterday and the whole room visibly saw him relax.

"I'm sorry for what I put you all through." He spoke calmly when he finished playing.

"You better be." Hermione said from the door, Scorpius at her feet. He tottled forward and Harry hoisted him onto the bed next to Draco.

"Never ever do that again." Hermione said quietly as she stepped into the room. "Never ever think that killing yourself is the way to go, you're not hurting yourself, you're hurting everyone you leave behind. No matter how hard it gets keep going and keep telling yourself that it will get better and I promise you that eventually it will. Always reach out and ask for help, no one will know to help you if you're hiding how you feel. Then one day you'll think back and realise that you are so much happier that you were brave and that you kept fighting. Okay? There's never only one option." Draco nodded slowly, relieved that Hermione didn't actually hate him. He knew that one day he would have to discuss the New Year's crisis but for now he was happy that everyone he loved was around him.

"Never again, I'll talk to one of you I promise." They all nodded and smiled. The worst part was over, Draco was alive, and from this moment he would begin to heal properly for the first time in his life, for right now he knew that he had a loving mother and loving friends and a beautiful son. For the first time Draco Malfoy realised how truly blessed he was to have the people who were now surrounding him. It will get better, he thought to himself smiling.

*********A/N******

Thank you so much for reading again with a very sensitive topic. Please let me know what you think AND ALSO REACH OUT IF YOU NEED TO, ESPECIALLY IN A COMMUNITY LIKE THIS ONE YOU'LL ALWAYS FIND SOMEONE TO LISTEN XOXO


	13. Back to school

Chapter 14: Returning to school

One week later and Draco, Harry, Hermione and Blaise were all returning to Hogwarts Hermione's and Blaise's powers were only just coming back. They were both still quite weak but getting stronger with every day. Draco had been a lot happier since waking up and it appeared as though the darkness that always surrounded him had begun to fade away. Although his arm needed to remain bandaged he was used to it so it didn't bother him much.

Hermione's P.O.V

I hugged mother and Narcissa goodbye before flooing to school with Scorpius on my hip. Harry followed quickly behind me and before long Blaise and Draco joined us. McGonagall was waiting for us at her desk. She smiled as she saw us come through the flames.

"Ah, good you are all back. Now I take it you have completed all of your work of the past work." We all nodded and I noticed that I seemed a little more excited about it than the boys.

"Very good, now due to recent events I will be having a monthly meeting with the five of you to keep an eye on things and making sure nothing gets to be too much." I saw Draco look at the ground nervously.

"Also Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy you two are in charge of planning the end of exam ball for May 31st and it is strictly for the 7th years." We both nodded before McGonagall smiled again. "Now off you go and enjoy your Sunday before classes tomorrow and I will see you on January 31st." We all shuffled out in silence. Once outside we all stood in silence for a second.

"I'm off to find Ginny, she's been worried for the past 2 weeks. Don't worry Draco I wouldn't tell her." He smiled before going off. Seeing him and Draco being friendly was the weirdest experience in the world but it was easier than seeing them at each other's throats.

"Yeh, Pansy's been the same. I'll see you guys at dinner." Blaise smirked before running off.

"And then there were two." I muttered quietly. Draco chuckled.

"Three actually" He said gesturing towards Scorpius. I laughed too, over the last two weeks I had forgiven Draco for what he had said after all it was a drunken mistake, a very stupid drunken mistake. After seeing that what my anger had driven him to do I realised that he just needed someone to be there for him and someone to understand him, even when he couldn't understand himself. To tell the truth Draco was a broken man, but slowly he was beginning to heal.

We walked in a comfortable silence towards our dorm. "So how are you and Damon?" Draco asked casually. I snorted with laughter, "Drayton? Yes we are fine, he says he's going to miss me but we can make the distance thing work." I replied quickly, despite having forgiven Draco I still found it awkward to talk about Drayton with him.

"Oh yeh, that's good." Draco replied awkwardly. We fell back into silence as we walked the rest of the way. Once we got there we both sat down in front of the fire, still in silence.

"Draco?" I said at last. He jumped slightly and his silver orbs met my brown eyes.

"Yeh?" He replied, his voice soft, gentle and curious all at the same time.

"Why did you do it?" I asked finally wording a question I had wondered for almost two weeks.

"It all became a bit too much if I'm honest." He replied simply. Running his hands through his hair.

"You know your arm will only heal once you let it heal, by blaming yourself you're keeping the wound open." He just nodded still with his head in his hands. "Draco explain to me every little thing that built up to it please."

"I felt guilty for letting down my mother, your mother banished me from the house, Blaise told me he hated me, you looked at me with so much venom and I just kept thinking how much pain I always caused. I thought you'd all be better off without me…" He mumbled not moving.

"Losing you would have nearly killed me Draco, It would have hurt a lot of people. We all need you in our lives, no matter how much you infuriate us or what you do to us we'll always need you in our lives." Draco looked up slightly, his Silvery eyes slightly red.

"Why don't you hate me anymore?" He asked and I gave a weak smile, after everything he still thought he should be hated.

"Because you needed me and friends are always there for each other." I replied simply going to the bookshelf and grabbing two books before turning and lobbing one at Draco. "Now promise me that no matter how angry I am at you, you'll always tell me if you begin to feel down again." Draco stuck out a pinky as he opened his book and pulled his legs up on to the sofa as I checked on Scorpius who was playing with his lion. I laughed before going up to him and holding his pinky tightly.

The weeks passed quickly, school was getting busier and busier with the Newts only months away. Draco and I became partners in all of our lessons and rather than taking Scorpius separately we did everything together. In many ways I was finding it hard to leave him on his own as a small part of me held fear at what he could do alone.

Every evening Draco would sit and play his guitar, occasionally singing too. It made me smile watching the joy that came along with playing. Drayton and I were okay but the distance was hard for him but nonetheless we were still going strong and he often sent me cute little notes and packages. Our first meeting with Mcgonagall went well, we had all decided to be fully open as we knew it would be the only way to help Draco.

Blaise said he kept having nightmares about that night and couldn't get the image of Draco lying there out of his mind. Harry had said how he kept thinking of his parents recently and that he would give everything to see the just one more time. I agreed with both boys and said how I was over protective of Draco (to which he snorted and muttered something about never being alone) and Draco said that he didn't feel as though he was being held back by pain and was finally starting to move on from everything.

When I said I was over protective of Draco I really meant it. I even conjured a second bed in his room and slept in there every night making sure he was sleeping soundly before I fell asleep. I knew it was silly but I felt a lot of guilt over what had happened and wanted to make sure it wouldn't happen again.

We quickly fell into February and before I knew it Valentine's Day was upon us.

********Draco's P.O.V*******

Valentine's Day signalled being back at school for a month and recently Hermione had been backing off slightly letting me have sometime alone after seeing that I truly was in a better place.

Over the past week we had started falling back into the old rhythm of dealing with Scorpius which made it easier for me as I felt like normality was coming back to us. As well as this it meant we could both get on with our mounting workloads. Most of the time when I wasn't with Hermione I was with Blaise so between the twins I was still rarely alone but I couldn't help smiling knowing I had the best friends. I was returning from quidditch practice when I saw Hermione crying on the sofa.

"Hey Mi' what's wrong?" I asked sitting next to her. She handed me a note in her hand. It was from the muggle stating his anger at not being able to visit her for Valentine's day at the castle and that he couldn't wait until graduation so she could leave the "crappy" magical world behind and be with him- asshole.

I hugged Hermione until she stopped crying. We sat hugging tightly for a few minutes longer before she leaned back and her brown eyes (although fake brown) looked into my silver ones. Slowly I leaned forwards and brushed my lips against hers. After a few seconds she responded kissing my back. We stayed like this for a few minutes before she pulled back and rested her forehead against mine.

"We can't do this Draco. I have a boyfriend." She muttered as she pulled away and stood up.

"You're going to stay with him?" I asked incredulously. She looked at me confused.

"We're just having a little fight, that's no reason to end it." She responded.

"You should end it. He wants you to leave the magical world! You love magic! Are you really willing to give it all up for him?" I spat suddenly feeling angry.

"What does it matter if I would?" she spat back.

"It matters because he's trying to control the one thing you love the most! And I most certainly won't allow my son to be raised by some… some muggle!" I yelled back. Hermione stepped back, clearly offended.

"I was raised by muggles. God Draco every time I think you've changed you go and prove you haven't. Well I'm sorry but I can't do this anymore. I'm done, don't talk to me for a while. I just need some time away from you." I rolled my eyes as she stomped upstairs. I knew I shouldn't have pushed her away right now but I couldn't contain my feelings anymore so having her mad at me was far easier, especially since I knew she wasn't really mad, she was just being stubborn. I picked up my guitar and began to play my favourite song, _No retreat, No surrender_. By the time I had finished there was a knock on the portrait hole. It was Blaise.

"You're an idiot at times, now come on, let's go find Potter." Blaise said smirking as he pulled me out of the portrait hole.

"I see you two have got the whole telepathic thing sorted." I mumbled grumpily.

"Yep and the funny part is, even when she doesn't want to talk to you, she asks me to keep an eye on you. Now come on we are going to go and chill while Pansy and Ginny get ready for out double date tonight. Although looks like it's a triple date now." Blaise said looking cheerful.

"What do you mean?" I asked raising my eyebrow.

"Hermione wants some alone time, so you're going to pick Scorpius up at 6:30 and we're all going to dinner." I nodded slowly before realising again what day it is.

"I don't want to intrude on your date night." I said slightly awkwardly.

"Oh not to worry, it's only Valentine's Day, Potter and I have both agreed that you're coming we get to treat our girlfriends every single day, so they won't mind too much." He replied beginning to walk towards the lake.

And so began the great silence between Hermione and I, both of us too stubborn to break it.

********Thanks*******

Thank you for reading !


	14. The great silence of 99

Chapter 15- The great silence

Draco's P.O.V

The great silence began after our conversation. At first I had tried to talk to Hermione on several occasions but each time, once she realised I wasn't considering hurting myself, she would blank me and walk away. To be honest I knew that Granger was mainly mad because deep down she knew I was right and I was standing firm with what I had said. I didn't want my son raised in the muggle world by a muggle because I wanted him to be raised in the magical world, by me. I wasn't about to let Granger replace me.

The fact we weren't talking also made things get better since it forced Granger to step back a little and realise that I was okay on my own although I did understand why she had been worried. I had scared everyone when I did what I never thought about how much it would have hurt Blaise to know that one of the last things he said to me was that he hated me. I never thought of the guilt that Hermione would feel knowing that she had taken Scorpius away from me just hours before I did it.

Then of course there was Scorpius himself. He would have had to grow up without his real father, he would constantly ask his mother where his daddy was. He would have never had any full siblings and all of the important things in his life would be saddened by the fact he would wish his father was there. That's when I realised how wrong I was and that's when I was determined to fight this blackness I felt sometimes. Now every time I felt this blackness over take me and every time I started hating myself again I would think of those three and my mother.

I would think of mother's warm hugs, Blaise's pathetic jokes, Hermione's amazing smile and Scorpius' perfect little giggle. These days I even considered Potter a friend, although it was definitely weird getting on with him but sometimes change was a good thing.

Hermione and I had been in a complete silence for two whole weeks when our monthly meeting with McGonagall came around.

We all strolled into the room and I noticed Hermione wait for me to choose a seat before decidedly picking the one furthest from mine and glaring at me. McGonagall looked confused between the two of us before Potter smirked.

"They aren't speaking at the moment Professor, it's been what? Two weeks?" He said, clearly amused at out childishness.

"And why is that?" She replied her voice stern as she watched us.

"Not really sure a fight about her boyfriend I believe." Blaise put in, he too was smirking. I chuckled at my friends, both had been effected by the fight since, while she didn't want to talk to me, Hermione also didn't want to leave me alone. This meant that Potter and Blaise had been roped into babysitting me. I felt bad for them since they both wanted more time with their girlfriends but none of us were willing to disagree with Hermione when she was mad.

Professor McGonagall appeared to roll her eyes and continued on. "So besides a petty argument how are the four of you doing?" Hermione scowled at her comment and everyone looked at me. After all these meetings were for me.

"I feel a lot better. I've realised that I was making a permanent decision based on temporary emotions." I smiled as everyone stared at me in amazement.

"I'm glad to see you've come a long way in such a short amount of time Mr Malfoy, I hope you will continue to feel this positive. So who's next." I looked at Blaise who instantly filled the silence.

"Well I feel fantastic, I've got my hand back, I've got my magic back, and now I've got a tattoo that my mother can't tell me off for!" Everyone chuckled at Blaise's blatant attempt to defuse some of the tension between us.

"I'm pretty good too, beautiful girlfriend, not bad grades, making enemies into friends what could be better? And we're going to crush slytherin in the quidditch cup." Harry added lightly. Again we all laughed at him. Finally everyone looked at Hermione.

"I'm okay. I have a GREAT boyfriend and all the friends I need." She replied shortly with a pointed look at me. I rolled my eyes.

The meeting continued for about ten more minutes, talking about exam preparation (or lack thereof), and plans for the upcoming weeks.

"Okay thank you for coming, see you next month. Hermione, Draco, I'd like a word with you both if you don't mind." We both nodded stiffly and watched as Blaise and Potter headed out.

"Now you two, I will not have my head boy and head girl ignoring each other, so sort out your issues." McGonagall huffed angrily. Hermione glared at me.

"With all due respect Professor, would you prefer us to constantly yell at each other because I'm not ready to forgive him until he apologises for being a prejudice, stuck up ass!" Hermione yelled the last bit in my direction making me smirk. At least I would always know that she cared for me in one way or another.

"With all due respect Professor, Miss Zabini or Miss Granger or whatever she wants to be called, is only angry because she knows I'm right and her pride gets in the way of accepting that." I smirked as she spun around and glared at me.

"Why you little…" she began to hiss

"That is quite enough! Detention both of you! And you will continue to serve detention every week night until you get over this silly argument. I don't care what happened and whose fault it was but I will not have my Head boy and girl at each other's throats. Now off you go." I groaned slightly and turned to leave when Hermione spoke.

"But Professor, that's not fair!" I smirked at her whiny voice.

"Hermione, if you do not wish to have detention on weekends as well I suggest you leave my office this instant." Hermione huffed loudly and I continued out of the office with her directly on my heels.

Once we were a safe distance away from the office she rounded on me. "This is all your fault, you…you…" She began stuttering slightly and I laughed.

"So you're talking to me now, does this mean you accept that you were wrong?" She scowled at me and shoved passed, slamming into my shoulder as she went.

And so the great silence continued. We served detention every week night, in complete silence, and continued on with our lives. Soon weeks turned into a month and a month turned into months. Our next meeting with McGonagall hadn't gone much better than the first. She had taken us off of detention but had warned that if we weren't talking by our next meeting with her (in one month) she would strip us of our badges, something which Hermione protested greatly and lost herself house points.

Harry and Blaise were given a little more freedom meaning they were happier as they could spend more time with their girlfriends. I spent almost all of my time, either with Scorpius on my alternating days when I had him or on my own. In many ways it had helped me as I got all of my school work done and had even read ahead in all of my subjects. It was on April 11th that we finally spoke again. Exactly 8 weeks after our silence had begun.

I was sat in the common room playing with Scorpius when Hermione stormed in.

Huffing as she fell gracefully onto the sofa. I looked at her and decided to end this ridiculousness. "Hermione" I started, she looked at me shocked that I had actually spoken to her. "I'm starting to feel that darkness again, I'm trying not to but I can't help it." To be honest I was telling the truth, the darkness had returned but I wouldn't let it control me. Not this time. This time I knew I had her.

"Thank you for telling me, you're strong enough to beat this darkness Draco, you have so much going for you, you're a great wizard, smart and you can be funny at times. You're not alone. And umm…" I smirked as her face scrunched up. It did feel good telling her how I felt. It was easier than telling anyone else, even if she had been mad at me.

"Yuwrrght" She mumbled angrily, interrupting my thoughts.

"Come again?" I asked, smirking slightly.

"I SAID YOU WERE RIGHT, HAPPY NOW?" she practically screamed.

"So I take it you've broken up with him." I replied simply watching her carefully.

"Yes I did a week ago. I didn't want to tell you, didn't want to see that stupid smirk," She growled still fuming.

"What happened?" I asked sitting next to her and sighing. True I had wanted her to admit that I was right but for some reason this wasn't as great as I had imagined it to be.

"He wants me to leave the magical world, and I just found out he's been cheating on me since the very start!" She yelled throwing her pillow across the room as I picked Scorpius up and propped him on my lap.

"I'm sorry, I kinda wish I wasn't right." She began to cry silently and I pulled her in close. I would have never put her as a crier but she seemed to have no issue crying behind closed doors. I mean this girl had cried at every little thing!

We sat cuddled together until Scor was fast asleep in the middle of us and so ended the great silence of 99.

***************THANKS!***********

Author's note: sorry, bit of a rushed chapter. It's a bit hard to write a silence! Please let me know what ya think! 


	15. It's all about you

Chapter 16: It's all about you.

Hermione's P.O.V

Just after making up with Draco I made my way towards the Gryffindor tower. It didn't take me long to find Ginny, she was sat alone staring intently into the fire as I walked in. She looked up and gave a weak smile.

"Hey can we go somewhere to talk Gin?" I asked her smiling, she nodded and got up, walking out of the common room I followed her. She seemed distant, once we reached the astronomy tower we stopped and looked out around the grounds.

"What's wrong Gin?" she shook her head.

"Nothing we need to worry about now, what is it you wanted to talk about?" She asked clearly trying to sound cheerful. I was going to push for an answer but one look In her eyes told me she wasn't ready to tell me.

"Well Draco and I are talking again and it's over with Drayton." I replied quickly, her eyes widened as she silently asked me to explain. "Drayton had been cheating on me for the whole time so I ended it." She scowled.

"That git!" I nodded in agreement as we sat on the steps of the tower.

"Then I obviously had to tell Draco that he was right and we are talking again." Ginny nodded listening to me. "What's going on with Draco? Something hasn't been right since New Years and Harry's being shady about the whole thing!" she blurted at last and I saw her face relax as she released her thoughts. I sighed before quickly explaining to her what had happened. She listened intently before promising not to share the information with anyone.

"I'm glad it's over with Drayton, you clearly only went with him cos he looked like Draco." Ginny said speaking at last. I turned to glare at her. "No I did not!" I lied quickly.

"Whatever you say but do you want to know what I find ridiculous?" I looked at her confused.

"What?" she smirked,

"You and Draco both love each other but neither one of you are willing to say it." I stared at her in shock.

"Draco doesn't like me like that, he thinks we are just friends." I replied, secretly hoping that she was right.

"Listen to me, Draco really likes you. You've really changed the boy, I've seen the way he looks at you and I've seen the way you look at him, so just take your moment and go for it. Before it's too late." I smiled shyly at her. Could it be true? Could Draco like me back?

I wished with all my might it was. He was gorgeous, he was Scorpius' dad, he was just as intelligent as me, he was funny, he had the best singing voice and he made me smile. He was everything I wanted in a guy.

"Anyway enough talking about me. Tell me what was up with you. I've never seen you so sad, it's not Harry is it? I don't need to beat his scrawny butt do I?" Ginny laughed slightly before her face fell again.

"No it's not Harry but I don't think we'll be dating for much longer…" She trailed of staring into the distance again.

"What? Why not?" I asked, what could possibly happen to make them break up?

Ginny slowly turned back to me. "Because I'm pregnant."

*************Draco's P.O.V

Just over a week later on the 21st of April, I decided a plan of action. Hermione had been a little distant this week and was always rushing off to see Ginny, who, according to Harry, was avoiding everyone for some reason so I planned a day for myself and Hermione to check that she wasn't still mad at me.

Blaise and Pansy had said they would look after Scorpius for me and I had already dropped him off with them at 7 am, when I got up. Next I went to the common room and made a full English breakfast before taking it up to Hermione in bed.

"Hermioneeee, I have a surprise for you." I said as she woke up grumbling. I made sure she was sitting up before handing her the tray, putting Aries on the floor and opening the curtains slightly. She smiled as she looked at the food, clearly quite shocked that I could actually cook.

"Thank you Draco, but what's this for?" She asked smiling as Aries crawled into my lap and went back off to sleep.

"Well we have a busy day ahead of us so you need to be well fed" I smirked as she gave me a quizzical look and raised an eyebrow. "Is that all I'm getting, what will I need to wear, where is Scorpius and how long will we be out?" She asked and I laughed at her controlling nature.

"Casual clothes will be fine but try to look nice." I smirked as she smacked me before eating her bacon. "Scorpius is spending the day with his uncle and you can wait to find out how long we'll be out." I replied. She sat in silence for a few seconds before I noticed that look in her eyes, she wasn't in silence, she was talking to Blaise, little minx!

"There's no point asking Blaise. I haven't told him anything." I replied bemused as she muttered something quietly.

"I know Blaise just said the same. God you two are irritating at times." She replied grumpily as she continued on to her eggs. Once she was finished I took her tray (and received a shocked look) before telling her to get dressed and meet me in the common room.

Half an hour later we were on our way out. Hermione was wearing light blue jeans with ripped knees, a white shirt, Black leather jacket and some ankle boots. Her hair was in a tight ponytail and her makeup was as perfect as ever, not that she needed any.

I took her down to hogsmead as she tried to guess our activities for the day. Once we reached the village I took her into a little coffee shop and we sat down just as two hot chocolates were placed in front of us. "This is such a cute little place. I can't believe I haven't been here before!" Hermione said and she sipped her drink. After we finished out drinks I placed a camera on the table in front of us.

"What's this doing here?" Hermione asked, she was referencing the fact that they didn't normally work anywhere near Hogwarts. "McGonagall helped me charm it to work at Hogwarts so you can use your amazing photography skills to make the best memories." I smiled as she picked it up and instantly started fiddling with it before I posed for her first photo, pulling a silly face.

"This is great! I've always wanted a good Camera to use at Hogwarts!" I smiled as she looked so happy and took her to our next destination. A shop where she could buy any piece of clothing or accessory that she wanted. I had set up a private room with only the most expensive stuff on sale.

Hermione shopped happily for about an hour before happily taking a bundle of stuff to the counter to pay. "It's on me" I said paying for her items quickly.

"Oh no Draco this is far too much!" She said as I sent the bags off to her room at Hogwarts with a simple flick of my wand. "Nothing's too much for you" I replied simply as we moved on. For the next few hours we wandered around the shops and had a proper look around the beautiful village of Hogsmead for the first time. Hermione having great fun taking many amazing pictures. Finally at 6pm I took her to a divine little café on the edge of Hogsmead. We sat in one of the corner booths and ordered our food.

Once we finished desert having happily discussed the day's events I took my moment. It was now or never. "I'm glad you enjoyed today Hermione. What I want to tell you is that I love you in fact I don't think the words I love you are strong enough for this moment they don't explain every inch of love I have for you." Hermione sat in silence blushing at my confession and finally she opened her mouth.

"No retreat" She replied simply.

"Excuse me?" I said highly confused, did this mean she wanted to be with me? She smiled.

"I feel the exact same way Draco, I have for months now. When we weren't talking I heard you singing that song and you said that I love you isn't strong enough to express how you feel so by saying no retreat…" I smiled and interrupted her.

"No surrender, is the perfect way of saying I'll never cease loving you!" I explained to myself as I leant forward and kissed her lightly. "I was worried you wouldn't feel the same with how you've been running off to be with Ginny all the time at the moment." I mumbled feeling lighter and happier than I had in years.

"Oh yeh, well Ginny really needs a friend at the moment." She mumbled as she kissed me again.

"Anything I can help with?" I asked looking at her and pulling away from the amazing kiss before I lost control.

"Well, um, she's worried about Harry…" She started. I nodded

"He's worried about her too, apparently she's been avoiding him. He thinks she wants to end it with him." I replied watching Hermione's eyes widen slightly.

"She doesn't she just worried about telling him that she's pregnant. She's afraid he won't take it well and she's terrified of how her family will react and of what Ron will do to Harry." Hermione blurted suddenly.

"Oh dear, we both know Harry won't ditch her. He loves her." I said as we got up to leave. Hermione nodded thoughtfully as we made our way back up to the castle.

"Blaise says congratulations on finally plucking up the courage to make me your girlfriend" She laughed after a few moments. I rolled my eyes.

"Do you two ever stop talking telepathically?" I asked, she seemed to think about it for a few moments.

"Not really, we like to keep each other well informed." She replied giving a smirk that could rival mine. I rolled my eyes and we continued our walk in silence. Slowly I wrapped my hand into her and she squeezed mine, letting me know that It was okay.

"Oh shit!" She said suddenly stopping in her tracks.

"What, what's going on?" I asked, very worried, apparently Blaise had just spoken to her and she wasn't happy. I stood for what seemed like an eternity, hoping that nothing had happened to Scorpius.

"Ron's attacking Harry! Come we have to go!" She said breaking into a run. Apparently Weasel had found out about his sister's pregnancy.

**********5 minutes later**********

When we got back to school mayhem had clearly occurred. The entrance hall was a mess with students gathered in tight little groups all whispering loudly. Gryffindor's hourglass had been smashed and little red rubies were scattered across the floor. The whispers broke out again when they saw the Head boy and Head Girl, the Slytherin prince and the Gryffindor Princess, holding hands.

Hermione and I ignored all the eyes and all the whispers and headed straight for the Hospital wing. "Has Blaise said anything else?" I asked a little panicked and wondering what had gone on.

"Uhm no he hasn't said a word and he's not responding, I don't think he's okay." She said sounding equally as worried as I was. We both broke into a light jog as we continued through the corridors until we reached the hospital wing. Inside was a scene like no other.

Ginny was crying, her arm all bloody. Both Ron and Harry were unconscious on two of the beds. Pansy was trying to console Ginny while also harbouring a swollen wrist. Blaise was nowhere to be seen. Neville was being given a calming draught, his leg and head heavily bandaged. McGonagall was stood with Professor Slughorn and Professor Flitwick talking in hushed tones. Before they noticed us we caught a few pieces of their conversation such as "havoc", "punished", "Expulsion" and "Azkaban" which of course gave us nothing but worry.

"What on earth happened?" Hermione said as she hurried over to Ginny. Ginny didn't say a word but just burst into tears and hugged her tightly. I walked over to Professor McGonagall whose normally tight bun had fallen loose and whose face was the pure definition of furious. "What happened Professor?" I asked carefully, not wanting to upset the woman who looked like she was about to breath fire.

"Never in all my life!" was all she responded glaring at the two beds which Harry and Ron lay upon. I looked at her and tried a different question. "Where's Blaise Professor?" I asked again being careful to sound no more than worried for a friend. McGonagall's eyes snapped to my face as though realising for the first time that I was stood in front of her. Her face changed now, she didn't look angry but instead she looked sad and simply pointed to a bed in the corner surrounded by curtains. Panic flooded through me as I stepped towards the curtains. Hermione was quickly on my heels realising my destination.

She cried out as I opened the curtain and saw Blaise who was as pale as me and covered in scars and scratches. He was cold to touch and his chest was rising and falling at a slower- than- normal rate. Hermione was by his side in seconds and clutching his hand begging him to wake up for her. After a few moments she appeared to realise her attempts were futile as she spun around anger blazing in her eyes as she looked around the room full of people.

"What the HELL happened to my brother?"

********Thanks***********

A/N: Thank you for reading once again, sorry for the cliffy but all will be revealed shortly. Until till then my fellow readers ! xoxo


	16. Micommunication

Chapter 17

Hermione's P.O.V

"What the HELL happened to my brother?" I yelled spinning around to stare at the room of shocked faces. I knew that some of the people hadn't known that Blaise was my brother but at the same time I trusted them not to say anything. I couldn't believe that I had been gone with Draco for one single day and all hell had broken loose. "And where is my son?" I yelled again into the silence. Madame Pomfrey stepped forward.

"Your son is fine, he's sleeping in my office at the moment, Blaise had dropped him off just before dinner and quite lucky he had too." She said breaking the silence. I nodded feeling slightly relief flooding through me slightly and I stared expectantly waiting for my other question to be answered.

Professor McGonagall stepped fuming her fury matching mine. "Potter and Weasley were having a brawl for some unknown reason in the entrance hall. I've never seen such an abomination before! They were destroying the school with a mixture of muggle and magical fighting. Longbottom, Parkinson, Zabini and Miss Weasley all tried to step in and break up the fight but all were injured in the process. Blaise was caught with both spells and was sent flying into the hourglasses. It took all four of us teachers to magically break up the fight and we were forced to knock those two out."

I stood in silence for a few moments processing the information as Draco came behind me and rubbed my shoulders gently. I relaxed back into him and looked back at the beds in the corner of the room. "What happens now?" I asked.

"Well, I've written to Molly and she and Arthur are arriving in the morning. When those two wake up we will receive their versions of events and then see what further action must be taken." McGonagall said looking disappointed.

"They won't be expelled will they?" I asked slightly worried at her tone. Ginny's head shot up, staring at McGonagall.

"Well we need to find out why Mr Weasley attacked Mr Potter in the first place. I will not tolerate that kind of behaviour in my school but that will be discussed in the morning." She replied sharply. My heart sank slightly, I could guess why they had been fighting but they couldn't be expelled now after all we've been through they are so close to graduating officially.

"You c…can't exp…ell th…them it's a…all m…my f…fault." Ginny wailed across the silent room. Everyone's heads snapped across to her.

"Miss Weasley what are you on about?" Professor McGonagall asked walking toward her slightly. Madame pomfrey continued to run around administering potions and healing cuts. Ginny sniffed loudly before talking a deep breath and calming herself down enough to talk.

"I'm pregnant. Ron found my c…crying as I looked at some baby names. I tried to hide the book but it was too late. He pr…presumed that H…harry had left me alone when he found out about the b…baby and w…went after him, but I h…haven't told h…harry about the baby!" she explained quickly. McGonagall sighed as her face softened slightly. Madame Pomfrey came running across, "On the bed now, you were knocked over I need to check that baby is okay" She snapped quickly gesturing towards a bed. Ginny slowly moved across and Madame Pomfrey waved her wand healing Ginny's arm.

Again she waved her wand and gently placed it against Ginny's stomach. "Around 3 months gone" She confirmed as the sound of a heart beat began to echo around the room. Everyone smiled slightly and tears fell silently down Ginny's cheeks. "Would you like to know the sex Miss Weasley?" Ginny looked at her with wide eyes.

"It's too early isn't it?" She asked sniffing again as the rest of us just watched in silence and Neville began to snore.

"No dear, in the magical world we can confirm the sex at 3 months." Ginny nodded slowly and Madame Pomfrey waved her wand again and Ginny's stomach slowly began to glow a bright blue. "It's a boy" She said as Ginny smiled and cried at the same time.

"We will have to inform your parents of this tomorrow Miss Weasley but for now I would like everyone to get to bed. We can meet here again in the morning." Professor McGonagall stated as she turned to leave, Slughorn and Flitwick following behind her.

I walked up to Ginny's bed. "It'll be okay Gin." I muttered hugging her. She laid back and smiled weakly nodding at me. I turned to leave and Draco followed behind me, now holding a sleeping Scorpius, as Pansy was whispering to Blaise's sleeping form. "Oh and Draco?" Ginny said, making us turn around.

"Yes?" Draco replied looking at her in confusion.

"It's about time." She said smiling again and nodding towards me. Draco smirked before taking my hand nodding at Ginny and Pansy and leading me out of the hospital wing.

"C'mon let's go get some rest. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day."

******The Next Day**********

Draco and I woke up at 7 am to the sound of Scorpius crying. Draco was up in an instant and before long had soothed him with some milk. I smiled gratefully and yawned before getting up.

It was 8am when we went down to the hospital wing having eaten breakfast in our room. Blaise was still out of it but Ron, Harry and Neville were all awake. Neville looked perfectly fine and was just waiting to be discharged. Ron and Harry both looked pretty sore and Harry wrist was bandaged while Ron's arm was in a sling. Both had a few stubborn cuts that had refused to heal and sat as a miniature reminder of the fight that had occurred. I walk up to the two beds and smacked both of them across the heads to which they both growled grumpily.

"What is wrong with you two?" I asked sitting on a chair between them as Draco was standing back a little looking awkward. Ginny had already left and I presumed she was with McGonagall and her parents.

"He started it. Attacking me for no reason and saying that Ginny was pregnant!" Harry snapped anger clear in his voice as Ron snorted.

"He deserved it, she was heartbroken when I saw her." Ron snapped as well. I laughed looking between them and received to identical glares.

"You two are so stupid. Yes Ginny is pregnant and she was sad because she didn't know how to tell Harry not because he had left her. You are both facing expulsion over something this stupid." I said, both of their faces paled considerably at the mention of expulsion.

"Expulsion?" they said together, looking at one another.

"Yes well let's hope McGongall doesn't kick you out. I take it neither one of you are going to make up?" They shook their heads stubbornly.

"He got my baby sister pregnant."

"He assumed the worst of me once again AND attacked me!" I just shook my head.

"Ron it takes two to tango, it's just as much Ginny's fault as it is Harry's and Harry, Ron made a mistake, something you of all people should understand. You're best friends for crying out loud now get over your pride and make up." I snapped sounding motherly as Draco gave a soft chuckle behind me and Harry and Ron muttered a grumpy "sorry" to one another.

As Draco stepped forward he gently squeezed my shoulder as Ron scowled again and Harry smirked. At least one of them accepted our relationship. We sat in silence for a few moments before it was broken by the group of people entering the hospital wing. Professor Mcgonagall led Mr and Mrs Weasley who were followed in by a teary Ginny.

"RONALD WEASLEY" Mrs Weasley yelled as she saw her son. I smirked slightly as he paled and I was reminded of the howler incident in 2nd year. Clearly Draco was thinking along the same lines as he too was smirking. "YOU HAVE REALLY DONE IT THIS TIME! EVEN YOUR BROTHERS DIDN'T GET US CALLED IN TO TALK ABOUT THEIR FUTURE AT HOGWARTS" she thundered as she marched towards him. Ron seemed to shrink back into his bed and cowered slightly. Even Harry backed off slightly.

"And don't think you're off the hook Harry, you're in just as much trouble as he is." She said in a furious tone, Harry looked away guiltily and shied away from her. Draco and I stepped back slightly to let everyone else in.

"Now that you both are conscious I would like an explanation for your atrocious actions last night." Professor McGonagall said as Mr Weasley soothed Mrs Weasley.

"Well I was just about to go to dinner and find Lav but then I came across Ginny crying. She was reading a baby names book and I knew instantly that Harry had gotten her pregnant. I thought that she was crying because Harry had left her behind because she's pregnant and so I went to defend my sister." Ron began to explain carefully so as not to anger his mother further.

"And Ron found me just about to go in the great hall for dinner he said I was a bloody arse for what I did to Ginny. I thought he was talking about us being together like at Christmas so I told him to mind his own and I could do whatever I wanted with Ginny." Harry put in, looking at Ron as the two pieced together the fight.

"And I was so angry when he said that. I thought he loved my sister and then he was treating her like this. So I lost it and hit him, then he hexed me and we started fighting." Ron said looking down slightly.

"Then I don't really know what happened but everytime someone came to break us up we hurt them but we never sent any spells at any of them. They just got hurt by coming close to us." Harry continued as Ron nodded and both looked slightly confused.

"We're both really sorry and we'll do any punishment, just please don't expel us." Ron pleaded as everyone else stared at the two in shock.

"Well Mr Weasley and Mr Potter, I'm afraid that might not be possible. You destroyed school property, you injured several people and one person has yet to wake up from the incident. I've never been so disgraced by two students at this school…"

"Blaise is fine" I interjected smirking. I received many confused looks. "We had a conversation last night when he woke up. We can speak telepathically and he took Madame Pomfrey's sleeping potion an hour ago. Says his scars hurt a little but other than that he'll be fine." I explained quickly. Everyone nodded and looked back at McGonagall.

"Well due to your services to the school over the last few years. I have decided that you will be allowed to continue your education but you will both be doing community service every day until the end of the year." She gave the tiniest smile as both Harry and Ron sighed with relief.

Ginny walked over to Harry's bed and took his hand. "Why didn't you tell me baby?" He asked so softly. She bowed her head towards him and he kissed her forehead before leaning his forehead against hers. Mr and Mrs Weasley stepped forward.

"Now you two will serve a punishment with us once you graduate. We are very disappointed with both of you. Harry, it would be wrong to say we aren't disappointed in the situation you and Ginny are in but at the same time we understand it. After all we had Charlie six months after we graduated." Mr Weasley said as clearly Mrs Weasley was far too angry to talk. Slowly the adults shuffled from the hospital wing.

"If you ever need any advice on the whole baby thing I'm always here." I said to Ginny who got up and hugged me as Draco and I turned to leave.

"Same goes for you Potter" Draco smiled as we began walking out giving a simple nod to Ron. "And don't worry we'll be back later when this goon wakes up." Draco said over his shoulder as I walked with Scorpius.

"Thank you" I said to Draco once we were out of the Hospital Wing.

"What for?" He asked curiously scooping Scorpius up onto his hip.

"For making an effort with them" I replied simply as we continued to walk, holding hands. A family at last.

**********Thanks******

Author's Note : Thanks for reading this chapter. Not the last chapter don't worry! We have a lot more story to come yet! Please review and I will update soon xoxo


	17. Exam season

Chapter 17- Exam season

Draco's P.O.V

Exam season was once again upon us. The month of May was a panicked affair as usual, you could barely walk ten steps without finding a crying kid or revision group. Normally I would be miserable this time of year keeping my head down and trying to beat Hermione to please my father. Something that I had always failed to do.

This month was different though. Quidditch had just finished, Gryffindor had won the Quidditch cup again, and I had caught the snitch, but unfortunately for me while I was busy chasing the snitch and beating potter to it I hadn't noticed weaslette scoring two more goals making it 160- 150 for Gryffindor winning, my team really were useless this year, I suppose that's what I get for leaving Goyle in charge after Blaise got injured.

Blaise had woken up and his scars had healed really well, although Potter and Weasle couldn't stop apologising to everyone. They weren't having nearly as much fun as I was all of their time was either spent revising or with the house elves in the kitchens. I laughed at the thought of them both in a hair net. Their relationship was healing slowly as Ron begrudgingly came to terms with Ginny's pregnancy. The funny thing is this wouldn't have been nearly as much of an issue if we had all graduated last year. As for Ginny she was only just beginning to show and Hermione was with her a lot of the time, when she wasn't with me. It was good to see Hermione around all of her friends again, even if Weasley was still reluctant. For the first time in the history of Hogwarts, Gryffindors and Slytherins were getting along and boy had it confused the rest of the school as one of the greatest rivalries the school had ever seen had faded away.

Hermione and I were great. Finally everything had fallen into place for us and the whole school seemed to have accepted us as a couple. Scorpius was growing quickly and I personally was very excited for his birthday in July. My first birthday with him and Hermione, oh how this year had changed us. Hermione and I spent a lot of time together, raising Scorpius and revising. As it turned out both of our grades were coming out as near perfect on practice exams, since we had been working together.

On the 2nd of May we had a rememberance day at Hogwarts to signify all those that were lost in the war and many families came over for the day to celebrate victory and mourn the loss. Harry got to see little Teddy again, who loved playing with Scorpius, it looked like the second cousins could become the best of friends, even if Scorpius would be a year above Teddy. It was a wonderful day and I was glad to spend it with Mother, The Zabini's and The Weasleys (and Potter but he was pretty much treated like a weasley).

Finally exams were over today and Hermione and I came out of them beaming. I personally couldn't have thought they went better, Hermione of course agreed. We spent the afternoon locked in the hall to set up for the leavers' ball this evening to celebrate the end of exams. Scorpius was easily kept occupied by whirling streamers around his head. We had our final meeting with McGonagall tonight, I was kind of glad for that but I must admit it was nice every month catching up.

At 5pm sharp we were sat in the office and we all looked at McGonagall expectantly. "Well I certainly don't need to ask how the four of you are doing this month, no doubt you are all ecstatic to be leaving here. I must say it has been absolutely wonderful teaching each of you and watching you grow into the young people you are today. I am proud of you all." She started, looking slightly teary.

"Well Professor I'm sure you'll be glad to get rid of the headache that we cause." I said trying to lighten the tone. Everyone chuckled slightly before McGonagall spoke again.

"Yes well I can see all of you having bright futures. Mr Malfoy and Miss Zabini you both have a beautiful family and I look forward to watching grow together. Mr Potter you too are about to start a family with Miss Weasley and I've already had offers from the auror office to snatch you up after graduation and Mr Zabini I look forward to seeing where you take your future as head of your family company and you future with Miss Parkinson. Now all of you go and get ready for this evening. I will see you there." We all smiled and even I couldn't say there wasn't a tear in my eye after that speech. Hermione hugged professor McGonagall and we all left.

"I'll see you in two hours beautiful" I whispered to Hermione and was just about to head off to the room of requirement where we had agreed to get ready while the girls got ready in the head's common room.

"Wait!" Hermione called just as I turned around. I nodded to both Harry and Blaise who took the hint and left. "What is it beautiful?" I asked softly pulling her close.

"It's time." She said. I gave her a confused look which she ignored and took my arm in her hands slowly she found the edge of my bandage. I pulled away slightly, "No, Hermione what if…" I began looking nervously at my arm.

"It's time." She repeated again, pulling the edge of the bandage and slowly unravelling it. I closed my eyes and waited to feel the gushing blood, but none came. I opened my eyes and stared at Hermione as slowly she healed my arm with nothing but a long, faint, white scar.

"I told you it was time. I've watched you forgive yourself over these past few months and now that you've forgiven yourself you've allowed yourself to heal." She smiled and kissed me.

"I'm better thanks to you." I whispered against her ear.

"No retreat" she whispered back kissing my cheek.

"No surrender baby. See you soon." I smiled and watched her hurry off. I had everything I could have asked for.

************2hrs later**********

Hermione, Ginny, Pansy, Daphne Greengrass, Lavender, Luna, Parvati and Padma all walked down the staircase giggling and smiling as Harry, Blaise, Theo, Ron, Neville, Dean, Seamus and I waited for them. Hermione was wearing a gorgeous red dress with a gold belt and her hair flowed in great curls. She kissed me lightly on the cheek as we walked into the hall packed with 7th years. Harry and Ginny followed us, behind them Blaise and Pansy walked, followed by Ron and Lavender, who were trailed by Theo and Daphne. Then came Luna and Neville, Parvati and Dean and Padma and Seamus. We all walked to the centre of the hall where Hermione magnified her voice.

"We made it guys! We've finally finished school, now it's time to party! I give you the weird sisters!" She said, her voice echoing around the excited hall as the weird sisters began to play. We danced all night and enjoyed the fact that for the first time in 8 years we didn't have any work left to do. We also enjoyed the fact that we had a month and 2 weeks before we actually had to leave this place and in that time we could simply enjoy our freedom. We could finally bask in the glory of Hogwarts, and straight after leaving it was Scorpius' birthday! I couldn't believe my little boy was about to turn 2 already.

As the night came to a close we all returned to our rooms without being ridiculously drunk. Wierdly, no one wanted to drink tonight everyone just wanted to enjoy each other's company. Once we got back to the common room Madame Pomfrey left, saying that Scorpius was tucked in bed. Hermione pulled me into a deep kiss to which I responded.

"No retreat baby" I whispered into her ear smiling.

"No surrender" She whispered back, pulling me up the staircase.

***********Thanks**********

HAPPY CHAPPY

Very short chapter I know but the drama starts soon! I mean come on they've faced a whole year with no death eaters and no trouble. That can't be right!


	18. No surrender

Chapter 19

Hermione's P.O.V

I woke up with a muscular arm around my body. I smiled truly happy for the first time. As I rolled around I was met by some silver eyes. I smirked as he whispered "No retreat, baby"

"No surrender" I responded kissing him on the nose. I lifted myself slightly and looked at the clock on my bedside table. "Oh crap, it's 10am we have to get Scorpius up!" I said shooting out of bed and waving my wand so that I was now wearing a large hoodie and some leggings. Draco rolled over groaning as I left him cold in the bed. I ran into Scorpius' room to wake him up.

"Draco, come quick!" I yelled, within seconds Draco was next to me. His trembling hand reached forward and picked up the piece of parchment left in the middle of the cot.

_Too busy with the mudblood to notice your halfblooded son disappear. The shame you bring to the Malfoy name. Good luck finding him. _

Slowly the paper fell to the floor as it dropped out of Draco's hands. He pulled me into a tight hug as I began to cry. My son was gone, my beautiful baby was in danger.

"We'll find him. He'll be okay" Draco kept whispering again and again. He too was clearly distraught at this. "It's my father's writing. He must have escaped from Azkaban." He muttered still holding me close.

"Go and talk to Blaise, tell him what's going on and I'll get dressed." I nodded slightly before walking toward the hall telepathically telling Blaise to meet me there. This had to be told face to face. Once I had explained everything to him I was in floods of tears and he hugged me telling me it would be okay before suddenly jerking backwards.

"Did you say Draco asked you to come and explain to me?" I nodded slowly as his eyes widened and I felt his emotions change to fear.

"What?" I asked shaking him slightly.

"Draco's gone after Scorpius. He wanted you to leave so you didn't get hurt." He replied. I jumped up and began sprinting towards our common room. "Victory" I yelled at the portrait hole and I ran as fast as I could up to Draco's room. Everything was untouched. I passed through Scorpius' room and into mine. He wasn't here.

That's when I noticed the piece of parchment sat on my pillow. I picked it up and sat on the edge of my bed.

_My Dearest Hermione, _

_I'm guessing Blaise figured it out, but yes I have gone to find Scorpius. Now I want you to follow my instructions carefully. _

_I never told you this but I put a spell on My ring, Scorpius' ring and your necklace, so that if any of us couldn't be found we would be able to apparate to one another simply by holding it. _

_This is how I'm going to get Scorpius. Please don't come after me. If I'm not back in two hours then you may come but only then. _

_If you do have to come, get Scorpius and get out. Do not come back for me. _

_You're the best thing to ever happen to me._

_No retreat baby girl _

_Forever _

_Draco_

I dropped the letter as the tears began to flow freely from my eyes. How could he do this without consulting me? I shook with worry for my son and for the love of my life. We had only had six happy weeks together so far, that couldn't be it, we were meant to have forever.

The hope in my heart sank further and further as the two hours slowly ticked by. I was sure Draco wasn't coming back. I got up off my bed and gripped onto my necklace thinking of Scorpius and instantly felt the familiar tug. Somehow Draco had managed to cast the spell so that we could even apparate on Hogwarts grounds.

The room I arrived in was dark and I could hear two guards muttering outside. In the dark I could make out a little crib in the middle of the room. I had no idea where I was but I walked over to the crib and scooped up my little boy just as I heard footsteps heading towards the room. Quickly I disapparated holding Scorpius tight to my chest. We landed in Hogsmead and I looked around at all of the 7th years that had come down to enjoy some of their freedom.

My eyes found Lavender in a matter of minutes. I ran over to her.

"Lavender do me and favour and look after Scorpius please. Take him to Blaise, he'll explain everything." I panted feeling out of breath. Lavender nodded looking shocked.

"I suppose I best get use to this." Lavender muttered, as she took Scorpius. I leaned forward.

"Are you giving the Weasley's another Grandchild?" I whispered, she nodded slowly her bottom lip trembling. "I haven't told Ron yet." I nodded and told her to tell him as soon as possible before apologising and excusing myself.

I held on tightly to my necklace again thinking of Draco. I know he told me not to come for me but I couldn't just leave him there. I was in a different room this time. In fact I think it was an entirely different building. It was old and wooden and the wind whistled through it loudly. The room was rather small but the lighting wasn't as bad as it had been where Scorpius was. There on the floor was a bloody and bruised Draco. I rushed towards him and crouched down.

"Hermione, I told you not to come!" He whispered thickly and his black eyes found my face.

"I know but I couldn't leave you. Come on I can get you out of here." I said lifting him slightly as he sagged.

"Hermione please go. They'll be expecting you" He whispered, growing weaker by the second.

I was growing desperate as I tried to hold his body again but I was already too late. The door swung open and I was blasted backwards hitting the wall hard with my head. My vision blurry, I watched as Lucius Malfoy came towards me followed by Bellatrix Lestrange and Fenrir Greyback.

"Well well well if it isn't the mudblood. I should've known you would find the child. No matter I refuse to hurt a baby anyway, even if it is tainting my family's blood. No it is the mudblood and the blood traitor I wanted.

"Draco's not a Blood traitor." I whispered at last. "I'm a pureblood." Lucius chuckled as Bellatrix stepped forward.

"LIAR!" she screamed before sending a crucio my way. I writhed on the floor and focused whole heartedly on not screaming. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction. Once she took it off I was panting in pain.

"Ashamed of your own blood status now mudblood? Well I'm afraid you're stuck with it." Lucius sneered. I rolled my eyes slightly and received a diffindo to the leg. I screamed as I felt my knee shatter. Slowly the pain began to blind me and my world became dark.

********Days later*******

I woke up for yet another day in this hell hole. The torture had been getting worse each day. I was forced to drink random potions as they slowly tore away at my body destroying me bit by bit. The only good thing about this place was that Draco was here. He was so much stronger than I was, he grimaced through the pain but he was always strong enough to take it. Every time the words "No retreat" left his mouth I was given a small glimmer of hope while I responded with "No surrender", today was different however.

When I woke up Draco was gone. I wondered where he was, normally they had no issue in torturing us while the other had to watch. I didn't have to wait long to see Draco though. He came walking through the door a wand in his hand. My heart sank when I saw his eyes caught In a sliver of light. They looked hollow, instantly I knew he was under the imperious curse.

The moment he saw me he raised his wand and muttered "Crucio" as I writhed on the floor once again, I noticed Bellatrix and Lucius enter cackling. The torture continued like this for a long while, I couldn't take it much longer, I could barely lift my head but I did, and looked at Draco.

"Come on Draco, it's me. Fight this. You can fight it Draco." I begged helplessly. Draco's eyes remained hollow as he muttered another spell and cuts instantly began to appear across my body. Lucius quickly stopped the blood from pouring out but left the cuts open so they stung against the wind.

"Draco please." I whispered as he continued to crucio me. I saw a slight flicker of recognition in his eyes but the spells continued. I knew what I needed to do.

"No retreat Draco." At this Draco paused, clearly struggling with himself.

"No surrender" He muttered softly before falling to the ground and howling in pain. I knew it would hurt him to throw the curse off but they would have hurt him anyway. As my world faded once more I could hear nothing but the sound of Draco yelling in pain and Bellatrix cackling.

*******Sometime later *********

I woke and groaned loudly in pain. "Hermione?" I heard Draco whisper sounding afraid.

"It's okay Draco" I whispered back knowing the guilt he felt. I was breathing heavily and knew I wasn't going to last too much long we must have been here for weeks now. Truth be told I wasn't okay but I couldn't let Draco feel like it was his fault.

"I'm so sorry." He whispered reaching forward and gently holding my fingers.

"It's okay it wasn't you… Draco I don't think I can do this for much long." I sighed closing my eyes and leaning my head back.

"Come on baby, No retreat remember. They'll find us soon." Draco said trying, and failing, to sound upbeat.

"No surrender Draco." I said lifting my head and trying to smile at him. My whole body hurt. Some of the potions I was forced to take were preventing me from healing at all. Again I felt my head dropping.

"Hold on baby girl, I didn't want to tell you this in this way but there's a ring in my bedside table. I got it for you. I was going to propose at Graduation. See that's why you've got to hold on, we can get married and Scorpius will have a full family at last. Please Hermione we are so close to having the future we've dreamed of for so long. I can't have that future without you." I smiled at him. I had never loved anyone more than I loved him in this moment.

"I'm s…sorry Draco. No s…surrender." I whispered feeling my eyes close. Before Draco could respond darkness surrounded me. And finally I felt peace.

**********SEMI-CLIFFY*********

Author's note- Thanks for reading! Next chapter coming soon. Any ideas what you think will happen? let me know! Also double chapter upload tonight since I've been a little quieter lately! ENJOY xoxo


	19. Draco

Chapter 20- Moving on

It had been one month since Hermione and Draco had gone missing and a fortnight since they had been found. It was pouring with rain on the morning of July the 1st when Hermione woke up again. Blaise, Harry, Ginny and Pansy were all sat around her bed. Blaise had yet to leave his sisters side and the others had come at every chance they could. She winced as she opened her eyes and was blinded by the bright lights.

Everyone gasped when they saw she was awake. Suddenly the calm and solemn atmosphere became a circus with people running around and checking on her. Madame Pomfrey came around and gave her a potion to help with the pain. As it turned out most of Hermione's cuts and bruises had been healed.

However there were some remaining injuries. One of Hermione's ribs was still broken and would be painful for a few weeks and Hermione's arm would have to remain in a sling as it had been pretty badly mangled. She had a few burns left on her right arm and her knee was in a tight magical cast so she could still walk since she couldn't use crutches.

"What happened?" She whispered looking straight at Blaise.

"It was Narcissa who found you, I've never seen her so angry. By the time we made It to the shrieking shack, they'd already started to burn it down. Lucius and Bella had no idea how to handle Cissa the way she was, they battled both of them couldn't hold her off but the cowards vanished at the last second. Narcissa pulled you out, if it weren't for her, we wouldn't have you." Blaise said and Hermione felt a great deal of sorrow flood through from Blaise but she couldn't figure out why. He was holding back from her but every now and then a burst of emotion would slip through his wall.

"Where's Draco?" Hermione whispered weakly looking around at the quiet hospital wing as the others all glanced at one another nervously.

"I'm so sorry Hermione, he's gone." Blaise whispered quietly, his voice shaking. Again Hermione felt a burst of pain slide through the wall he was putting up against her. There was silence for a few moments as Hermione processed the information she had just been given.

"Where's Scorpius?" Hermione said at last. Her voice was stronger now, stronger and colder. The other's all looked at each other as though they had misheard what Hermione said. Harry stepped forward and took her hand.

"Mione, Draco, he fought for as long as he could…"

"Yes, now where is my son?" Hermione said brushing him off of her hand. She just wanted to know her son was ok. Again the others all looked between themselves unable to think of what they should say.

"Oh he's um… with Lavender and Ron, they're getting some practice in." Ginny said giving a small smile as she rubbed her own growing bump. Hermione nodded slowly, still thinking.

"So what work have I missed? It's those job interviews right?" Hermione said casually after a few moments, as though she hadn't just been told that her boyfriend and father of her son had just died. The seventh (well eighth) years were kept for weeks after the rest of the school finished to prepare them properly for the working world and offer them the opportunity to secure positions before leaving school.

"Hermione did you not hear me?" Blaise said sounding worried and annoyed at the same time. Hermione's face looked blank before she stared at him. "Draco's gone Hermione, he's …"

"I know he's dead Blaise, you would think I've seen enough death over these past few years to understand the meaning of the word "gone"" Hermione snapped and everyone went quiet.

"So how do I catch up with the job interviews?" Hermione added her voice appearing perfectly calm once more, looking around at the shocked faces starring at her.

"Well you don't have to, you've already got three offers." Blaise said at last, still confused at how his sister was reacting. Hermione noted the caution in his voice as though any single word may make her expload. She nodded and indicated for him to go on. "Well, one to train as an auror with Harry and Ron. One to train in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures." Hermione pulled a slight face at both, she'd worked so hard that she wanted a bit more than just one of the normal jobs the ministry offered.

"And the one I think you'll go for, something that's never happened in the history of Hogwarts. The head of the Department of magical Law enforcement, wants to train you himself, so that you can take over from him when he retires!" He said trying really hard to sound cheerful. His smile didn't quite meet his eyes but Hermione knew that had nothing to do with the amazing opportunity she had been offered.

"Oh that's fantastic! Oh my goodness, I need to prepare! Okay so Pansy can you go to the library and grab all the books you can find on law enforcement, Harry can you go and get Scorpius, I would really like to see my son, and Ginny can you go to my room and grab the black folder on the bookcase with Graduation written on it." Again she received many confused looks but slowly they shuffled out of the room. Blaise sat in silence until the room fell quiet again.

"It's okay to be sad you know, it's okay to cry and it's okay to grieve. You loved him, we all did, and even I cried a little, when I found out. He was the closest thing I had to a brother." Blaise said at last staring at her as though begging her to show some emotion.

"Nothing I do will bring him back. I have to be strong, you know why?" He shook his head slightly and Hermione saw the flicker of tears in her brother's eyes.

"Because one day, my beautiful son is going to look at me and ask why he doesn't have a daddy, and on that day I will have to look into his eyes. Eyes, that know not of pain, or malice, or evil and I will have to tell him that his daddy loved him very much and that he was taken away by an evil man. A man who destroyed his son's happiness purely because he could not comprehend it." Hermione said her anger clear as she spoke. "So I have to be strong, I have to start now. What's happened has happened and there's nothing I can do to change it." Hermione's voice was blunt and almost hollow

Blaise just nodded, knowing nothing he said could change how she felt. "There's something else" He said quietly after a few moments. It was clear he didn't want to tell Hermione anymore bad news but he knew it had to be him who told her. Hermione raised an eyebrow telling him to go on non-verbally. "Draco's funeral was last week. Narcissa just couldn't wait, she said it was too hard. It nearly broke her."

"Oh". They fell into silence for a few minutes before Blaise began to explain what Hermione had missed over the past month and had even told her that it was in the fire that Draco had died and Narcissa had been able to pull her out just before the shack collapsed. Madame Pomfrey interrupted their chat by bringing over a tray with some small sweet-like things on it.

"These are some new pill type things we've been working on to stop you from needing so many potions." She explained quickly. "The red one is to help with your bruising, The blue one will help with the pain, the green one will prevent any further internal bleeding and the Purple one will help to keep the baby safe." She said pointing at each pill individually.

"The baby?" Hermione stuttered looking confused before sharing the confused look with Blaise who looked equally confused.

"Oh yes, you're about a month pregnant Miss Zabini, quite remarkable really after everything you've suffered. This one's a fighter" She said before handing Hermione the tray and shuffling back to her office. Hermione took her pills before looking at Blaise.

"Great, now I'll be a single mother to two children." She muttered, Blaise was about to respond when Harry came back in with Scorpius and Ginny came back carrying Hermione's black folder.

"Mummy!" Scorpius squealed struggling to get to Hermione. Hermione smiled and pulled him in for a one armed hug before wincing slightly as she sat him tucked under her arm.

"Okay, everything in this folder is ready for Graduation, I just have to check it over and then we can send it to McGonagall." She said pulling out a spare piece of parchment and writing a note to the head of the law enforcement. She folded it into an origami bird before blowing it and watching as it fluttered off.

*********3rd July

The hunt was officially on for the kidnappers, who had managed to fall off the face of the earth. McGonagall had come by several times to check on Hermione and to get numerous statements from her. It was now common knowledge that Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange and Fenrir Greyback had broken out of Azkaban.

Madame Pomfrey had said that Hermione would be released from the hospital wing on the 5th of July but would need help since her sling wouldn't be coming off for a further 3 weeks and her knee brace would be on for 5 weeks. Blaise was still confused by how Hermione was reacting to all of this. She hadn't stopped reading or researching since she had woken up. She hadn't shed a single tear and she never mentioned Draco. It was like she was in some sort of trance.

Harry and Ginny or Ron and Lavender were helping with Scorpius whenever they weren't in lessons, something Hermione was grateful for since she was unable to even pick Scorpius up. They all worked at her beck and call to do anything and everything she needed. Blaise stayed with Hermione in the hospital wing and Pansy often brought the pair of them food, she understood Blaise's concern and in many respects they were all waiting for Hermione to fall apart.

Today Blaise was forced to leave the hospital wing for the first time in just over 2 weeks, since Hermione was having a private meeting with the Head of the Department of magical law enforcement.

*****BLAISE'S P.O.V********

I left the hospital wing once Adrian Prachet arrived and made my way to finding Pansy. The school felt quieter without Draco, every corridor in this place felt like it was missing something. I wanted my best friend back. My heart physically hurt and felt like it would fall out of my chest at any given moment. I had to block my emotions from Hermione and it was exhausting to hold it all away from her but the last thing she needed to feel right now was the pain I felt.

I never thought I'd have to walk down these halls without him. We'd been through it all together and I couldn't believe that after surviving becoming a death eater, failing at his task, taking the mark as punishment for his father, and fighting in a war, he was gone now. He'd been through so much, we both had and he couldn't just be gone. Since he'd been gone a piece of me had been missing too. I would never forget hearing the cries of Narcissa as she realised her only son was gone and how Potter had held me up as I too lost all strength in my body. After days of feeling Hermione's pain and not being able to speak to her my own pain crashed into hers. In that moment I hadn't cared that Potter saw me cry for the second time in months because in those moments he was the only thing holding me together.

I couldn't understand Hermione's reaction to this whole thing. She said she was just being strong but this wasn't being strong, she wasn't reacting at all. She was acting like nothing had happened and I couldn't understand why. She loved him, so how is she just carrying on right now? I couldn't just carry on, everything reminds me of him. For the first time I couldn't feel a thing my sister was feeling, it was just cold like the dead end of a phone line. I was sure she was cutting me out too but I couldn't figure out how to break through it. Pansy was feeling the same, barely a day went by when she didn't cry at the loss of our best friend. For the longest time everyone thought that she would marry Draco but during the war, while we were stuck at Hogwarts, we really learned to lean on each other and we needed each other now more than ever.

I finally found her in the Slytherin common room staring distantly into the fire. I walked over to her and wrapped her tightly in my arms. "Hey" she whispered quietly hugging me back. Her voice struggling for strength.

"Hermione's got that meeting, so I've got a few hours." I muttered kissing her forehead. She looked broken these days, I guess this is how we all looked. Words weren't enough to describe how we felt anymore. What was left to say when everything you knew was always torn away from you?

We sat in silence for a while just thinking and hugging. In many ways it was comforting but at the same time I wish I could stop thinking of all the things that Draco was going to miss. Why is it that everyone dies just as things start going right for them? I just needed to stop thinking, to stop feeling. I tried for a few seconds to move into Hermione's emotions and see how she was feeling but I felt nothing. It was hollow. She was definitely shielding me, there was no way she felt this empty.

I felt so much guilt over what had happened. I shouldn't have let Hermione go off after Draco and then for two weeks I was only able to feel the pain my sister felt. I couldn't communicate with her no matter how much I tried. I should've worked harder to find her and to save him.

I looked across to Pansy and saw tears slowly trickling down her face again. I wish I could do something to heal the pain that she felt but nothing I could say would help her, grief was like that it just keeps hurting until one day you feel a bit brighter and slowly you begin to heal. We've just got to wait for that brightness. The pain would never go away, it would just get easier to handle.

Our silence was disrupted by a first year scuttling up to us. "Umm excuse Mr Blaise… Umm Harry Potter wants to talk to you h…he's outside." He squeaked nervously. I nodded before giving Pansy a tight squeeze and pulling her with me to see Harry.

Even he had been sad since Draco's death. It was an odd little group we had all formed but I had a huge amount of respect for him. His friends were everything to him and he really was there for everyone. As we stepped out of the common room Potter was leaning casually against one of the walls, Pansy wiped her eyes quickly and tried to look more presentable. "Hey, you wanted to talk?" I said as we saw him. He gave a weak smile and gestured for us to walk with him.

"I've just been to speak with McGonagall." I nodded, holding on to Pansy's hand as we moved up towards the stairs.

"Well, as you two know the grades are coming out tomorrow. Naturally she's already seen the grades and she's noticed a slight issue to do with Graduation." I raised my eyebrows.

"What is it? And why did she need to tell you?" I said we walked through the entrance hall and to the grounds.

"Well, as expected Hermione is valedictorian with 100% on every exam so she will be doing a speech at Graduation." I looked at him confused.

"How is that an issue?" Pansy asked, wording exactly what I was thinking.

"That's not the issue. The issue is that the other valedictorian also has to do a speech because Hermione's not the only student who got 100% in every exam…" I let out a sigh realising what the issue was as once again I felt a stab of pain run through me.

"Draco did too didn't he?" I asked looking at Harry, he nodded. "So why does this involve us?"

"Well she doesn't want to ask Hermione to make her speech longer because she's worried it will upset her, so she's asked me to give a speech in Draco's memory, with the help of you two of course." We nodded and sat down by the lake. "Oh and we aren't allowed to tell Hermione this information, she's not to know her grades before tomorrow either."

"Well we best get writing this speech then." I said looking between Harry and Pansy. "For Draco"

************Thanks************

Author's note: Don't kill me! I knew from the beginning that the story was going in this direction! Review and let me know opinions xoxo


	20. Graduation

Chapter 21: Graduation

Blaise's P.O.V

The day had finally come. The 7th July 1999, the day we would finally graduate. I was beyond worried about Hermione. She was still ignoring the fact that Draco was dead and just focused on reading and researching her new job which she would start on the 5th August. She was only released from the hospital wing this morning due to a few complications and was currently hobbling around to get ready with Ginny, Pansy and Lavender.

We had all done quite well in our exams. None of us failed anything, although none of us got close to doing as well as Hermione and Draco had done. Turns out when the smartest two in the year stopped competing and started working together they left the rest of us in the dust. Harry, Pansy and I had written the speech for Draco and Harry knew it of by heart already. Mother had arrived this morning for graduation along with the Weasley's and Parkinson's all looking rather solemn without Narcissa. She couldn't bring herself to come knowing that her son should have been graduating with us. Hermione hadn't seen Narcissa since everything had happened and I couldn't help but wonder if Narcissa could help her face it.

Professor McGonagall had allowed me to hand deliver Draco's grades to Narcissa. She had cried as she read how well Draco had done and instantly framed his grades putting it on her mantle. I hadn't stayed for long, poor Narcissa was heartbroken without Draco. I really don't know how she was carrying on. How do you carry on as a parent knowing that you don't have a child anymore? You couldn't just stop being a parent and it all just felt so unnatural.

We all got called up in our cap and gowns one by one, Hermione was called "Granger" since she wasn't making her announcement about her heritage for another week. Finally we had all been called and graduating in absence was also announced. (There was a solemn silence when Draco's name was called) and finally it was time for the speeches. First up was Hermione's speech, she hobbled onto the platform and looked out across the crowd holding her speech in her right hand and her sling was matching her black graduation robes.

"We've finally done it guys!" She started looking nervous. "After 8 years and a war we made it to the finish line. Today is the day our lives begin. Today is the day for us to shine. Today our dreams are within reach and our opportunities and possibilities are vast. Today we can become the people we've always dreamed of being. Today the world is at our disposal. This is our world and it's our turn to take the reins. The world is waiting for us to succeed. If we need it then Hogwarts will always be here to welcome us home but for now we say goodbye to Hogwarts and hello to the rest of our lives! Thank you" She smiled slightly as she hobbled off the stage, with Harry's help and the crowd clapped and cheered.

Next Harry stood up on the stage and gave a weak smile. "As I'm sure you know I'm not the other valedictorian, I'm definitely not as smart as our Hermione." The crowd chuckled slightly. "I'm here to speak about our other Valedictorian. For the first time in Hogwarts history, our year has two students who managed to achieve 100% in every exam. Draco Malfoy is our other valedictorian and it is with a heavy heart that I do this speech in his memory. Draco died recently but his legacy will forever live on in this school. Draco Malfoy appeared to be the typical Slytherin when we started here, but the war allowed him to reveal his true self. He helped to ensure that the light side won the war at a great personal risk. As well as this Draco returned to school when many others couldn't face it, and Draco has been a part of the greatest union in history. The union of Slytherin and Gryffindor and we have finally put our rivalry to bed. Today we remember the life of Draco Malfoy and we celebrate his achievements. Draco Malfoy is someone I'm glad to say that I gave a second chance and that we became friends. Draco was a wonderful friend, a loving father and a caring son. Say what you will about the Draco Malfoy that you saw but it will be an insult to his memory for any of us to think of him as anything less than a great man. Goodbye Draco let your legacy forever live on here at Hogwarts. Thank you."

I looked around and saw that there was barely a dry eye in the house as Harry stepped down, but of course there was one dry eye. Hermione was sat studying her Graduation certificate in great detail. As everyone began to move and parents hugged their children, mother came across and pulled Hermione and I into a hug. "Well done you two! I'm so proud of you!" She said and took our certificates before tucking them safely in her robes and handing Scorpius to me.

"Now I've got to deliver Draco's certificate to Narcissa and I will be back to spend the day with you tomorrow. I hear you and your friends are apparating to the graveyard today?" Hermione and I nodded as Ginny, Harry, Pansy, Ron and Lavender appeared behind us. McGonagall had given us permission to visit Draco's grave today and we had decided to all go as a group. Mother nodded before kissing us and apparating away. (The apparition wards were taken off of Hogwarts field today just to allow the parents to come and go.)

After mother left, we apparated off to the graveyard. Hermione side along apparated with me and Scorpius. The Weasley's and Parkinson's were coming back to spend the day tomorrow so that we were all available to go to visit Draco with Hermione. It didn't take us long to reach Draco's grave. It had a large ornate marble headstone and in green writing it read:

_Here lies Draco Lucius Malfoy_

_5__th__ June 1980- 14__th__ June 1999 _

_Loving son, father and boyfriend. _

We all stood in silence for a few moments embracing our grief. Hermione waited a few seconds before leaning forward and waving her wand. Words appeared at the bottom of the head stone.

"_No retreat, no surrender." _ I gave a weak smile as Hermione kissed her fingers and placed them softly on the grave. I knew what the words meant for Hermione and Draco and felt a pang in my heart knowing that she wouldn't hear those words again.

Slowly we all began to discuss our favourite memories with Draco and laughed at the many good times he gave us. Hermione was the only one who didn't share a memory, she just stood there gently stroking Scorpius' hair as he gripped her leg and watched us all with his wide purple eyes. We had been there for about an hour when Hermione finally spoke. "This has been lovely, but we should probably go. I've got to get ready for the leavers dinner tomorrow." We all shared an awkward look before Ron nodded.

"C'mon Mi, Lav and I will take you and Scorp back." She nodded and they apparated away. Ron and Hermione had returned to their old friendship these past few weeks and I couldn't help thinking that it had taken a gut wrenching situation for him to mend things with her.

I sighed as I watched them go. "I never expected this."

"None of us did." Harry replied as he took Ginny's hand.

"I'm not sure if she's holding it in or just not accepting it." I said as began to move. We apparated away and landed by the lake at Hogwarts. We saw Lavender and Ron, playing with Scorpius by the lake.

"Hey guys, where's Hermione?" I asked as we walked up to them.

"She asked if we could watch Scorp for a bit." I sighed before turning and running towards the castle. Harry was with me in seconds while Ginny was waddling behind us and Pansy was staying with her.

I didn't want to leave her alone. Not at a time like this. She had to be with someone.

Once we reached her common room I muttered the password and climbed through the portrait hole. I was about to run up her staircase when I heard a loud crash from Draco's room.

"Oh no," I muttered as Harry and I spun around and ran up Draco's staircase. Opening the door I saw an image that literally broke my heart. Draco's room had been destroyed with his things strewn across the floor. There in the middle of the room was Hermione. As I opened the door she crumpled to the floor in floods of tears. I should've known this was coming, she had held it all in and now she was exploding. She was crouched over clutching the smashed frame. It was the picture she had gotten Draco for Christmas with her, Draco and Scorpius looking like a real family.

I ran forward and embraced my sister tightly as she cried out a lifetime's worth of pain. Her sobs echoed around the room splitting through the deafening silence. Harry began to fix Draco's room as I hugged Hermione. Then Harry helped me get her up and onto the bed. She sniffed loudly hugging the pillow tightly. "We'll be right here for you Mi, just get some sleep." I muttered quietly. "Harry can you go and get Madame Pomfrey we need her to put Mi's cast back on and to bring a calming draught." Harry nodded before turning and leaving the room. At the same time Pansy and Ginny entered.

"Oh Hermione" Ginny said as she came and sat on the edge of the bed. She gently rubbed Hermione's back as her sobs continued to echo around the room. She cried quietly curling into a ball despite the obvious pain it caused her. Pansy walked behind me and rubbed my shoulders slightly. I sighed and took her hand into mine. "I love you" I whispered, kissing her fingers.

"I love you too." She whispered, we all sat in silence and slowly, over time, Hermione's sobs died down and she drifted off to sleep. "She can start to heal properly now." Pansy whispered I nodded and looked at her sleeping form.

"I'm so tired of feeling useless. I just wish I could help her heal." I replied, Ginny looked up to me and gave a weak smile.

"You are so much like Harry, he feels exactly the same. These things just take time, but she's strong she'll heal." She said softly. "She just needs all of us to be there for her."

I nodded and sat in Draco's window seat and pulled Pansy on my lap. "We'll get her through this."

**********The Next Day********

Hermione's P.O.V

I felt hollow when I woke up. My head hurt and eyes were sore, but nothing felt worse than the pain in my heart. I lifted my head and saw all of my friends camped out around the room fast asleep. The only people missing were Ron, Lavender and Scorpius so I guessed they were all together.

A thought struck me and I reached across to Draco's bedside table and pulled open the draw. There in the corner sat a little black box. I opened it with trembling fingers, inside was a beautiful gold ring with three stoned on it. A pearl on one side, a ruby in the middle and a peridot stone on the other side. I smiled at its beauty wondering why my birthstone wasn't on there and slipped the ring onto my ring finger on my left hand. I swore never to take this ring off. It was the last gift Draco was going to give me.

I was still struggling to believe that Draco was truly gone, but seeing his gravestone yesterday made it very real. I couldn't explain the vast range of emotions I was feeling. I was sad because I missed Draco, guilty because of why it had happened, worried about my future, scared for my children, angry that Draco had left me and ashamed that I was angry at him. I couldn't help feeling numb, I had gone through so much that I was just numb to the pain now. I opened my locket that Draco had given me for Christmas and looked inside at the picture of Draco pulling a face. It was the picture from our first real date.

I felt a few stray tears rolling down my cheeks. I got up and went to the bathroom noticing that my knee brace was back on. I needed a shower so I waved a dry spell on it and took off my sling. I stepped into the warm shower and let the water fall down my face.

After my shower I dressed in a large white shirt and some leggings as well as my ugg boots. I kept my hair in a head towel not bothering to dry it. When I left the bathroom I noticed that everyone else was awake and waiting for me.

"Hey, how you feeling?" Ginny asked softly as I pulled my arm back into my sling making sure my ring was secure.

I just nodded at her. In all honesty words were not enough to describe how I am feeling. Death is funny like that, it's easy to talk about until you feel the loss of a loved one and then it's almost impossible to describe the feeling. You feel cold and numb and it feels like someone is squeezing you heart with every single breath you take. Yet you can't find the words to describe the simple things in life. They become non-existent. What's the point in the simple things if the best things are ripped away from you so quickly?

"C'mon Mi, tell us the truth you're not fine and I'm not going to let you pretend you're fine, I can feel your emotions again." Blaise said attempting a slight smirk at the last part.

"What's the point?" I replied softly, looking around at all of my friends. The all gave me sympathetic looks.

"The point is we don't want you to suffer alone. We all feel the pain of Draco's death and we want to get through this together. The point is you're not alone." Harry said through the silence. I knew that Harry of all people could understand this feeling but at the same time he'd never lost the love of his life.

"He's gone. That's it he's just gone." I replied simply. Still this wasn't enough to describe the overwhelming sense of sadness I felt. Nothing would ever be enough to describe this.

"It'll get better Mi." Harry smiled gently.

"And we'll be here for you until it does." Pansy added quietly. Blaise walked up to me and handed me a grey hoodie.

"This was Draco's favourite hoodie." He said waving his wand so that it appeared on me. I looked down and saw the Hogwarts logo and the letter DM embroidered on to the chest. I smiled weakly and raised my hand to the letters touching them gently.

"Right let's sort you out." Ginny said in her motherly tone. She waved her wand so my hair appeared in tight wet plaits before she then dried it and undid the braids so that my hair fell in long waves.

"So Mione, as you know it's parents day today, but we thought it would be nice for you to spend some time with Narcissa. So we'll all meet you for dinner, now come on mother and Narcissa are in the entrance hall." Blaise said leading me out of the room.

Maybe a day with Narcissa would be a good thing. I couldn't imagine the pain that she was suffering the only thing worse than losing the love of your life is losing a child. The love of your life is the other half of you but you child is a physical part of you that you have spent years watching and supporting. No parent should have to outlive their child. That's why I felt so conflicted with Scorpius lately, I felt a need to keep him close and watch over him but being close to him brought nothing but pure pain into my chest as I saw his father in every part of him.

Once we all reached the Entrance hall, we all walked towards our families. The Weasley's, Parkinson's, Brown's, Mother and Blaise all wandered off to the grounds leaving me with Narcissa. I gave her a small smile.

Narcissa gave a weak smile back and softly took Scorpius' hand. Her eyes were still slightly puffy and she was wearing all black. She looked paler than usual and you could tell that a part of her was missing. The light she had in her eyes was now gone, almost as if she had lost all hope in the world. We walked in silence for a few moments as we took the path towards Hogsmead.

"I'm sorry for your loss Narcissa" I said at last. We both needed to talk about Draco's death, there was no other way we would be able to heal. I had to try accepting this at some point.

"It's your loss as well my dear. I heard what happened yesterday and I just wanted to chat with you." Narcissa replied giving me a weak smile. I pulled my coat tighter with my good arm and stared at the path ahead.

"I never thought I'd actually lose him." I admitted as we walked.

"It's so quiet without him. I keep waiting for him to come home and give me his little smirk. I wait for him to tell me that this is all some sick joke." Narcissa said lifting Scorpius up and onto her hip.

"I keep thinking he's going to walk into the common room and hug me. I would do anything to hear his voice one more time or to see his smile." I said fiddling with my ring in my sling.

"I see you got the ring. Draco was so proud when he designed it. He said that it felt like he'd been waiting his entire life for something that was right in front of him." Narcissa said, her voice thick with tears.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked looking at her, she nodded. "Why isn't my birthstone on here?"

Narcissa laughed slightly.

"Oh of course, no one's told you. Your birthday is actually in August not September. You and Blaise were born in August 1980 not September 1979. So that is your real birthstone."

"Wait so I'm not 19 yet?" I asked shocked that I was almost a year younger than I thought I was.

"No not yet dear." She said smiling softly. I stared at her in shock, how had no one told me this?

"I'm never going to take this ring off Narcissa, just so you know." I said as we sat down and ordered two butterbeers, Narcissa sighed.

"When we were pregnant your mother and I always dreamed of one of us having a boy and the other having a girl so that they could fall in love and marry each other. After Violet had to give you away, we never spoke of the idea again." She said reminiscing.

"Well I would marry Draco a million times if I got the chance. I can never consider being with another man now." I whispered sadly. It was true, they say you know when you've met the one and Draco was my one.

"Draco would want you to move on dear. He would want you to be happy." Narcissa whispered softly to me as though revealing a secret. I gave her a weak smile.

"I don't think I can ever be truly happy without him." I replied and she gave an understanding nod as I whipped away a stray tear. Now that I had cried once over Draco it felt like the tears would never stop, like an old tap with a persistent drip.

"I feel like it's my fault. They took us because they thought I was a mudblood. They thought Draco had betrayed them. If I had told everyone sooner then maybe…" I blurted quickly. It felt good to finally get my guilt of my chest.

"It's not your fault dear. They've always wanted an excuse to do something like this." Narcissa replied firmly. "Don't feel any guilt. Draco loved you and that's all that matters, what they've done means nothing and their cowardly excuses mean nothing." She said sounding slightly angry. I realised how hard it must be for Narcissa to know that her husband and her sister had killed her only son.

"But what if you saving me stopped you from saving him." I added again admitting one of the million things that had been buzzing in my mind.

"My dear, none of this was your fault. Lucius knew what he was doing when he took the most important thing from me I'm just glad I was able to save the most important thing to Draco." She said giving the softest of smiles. I knew she wanted to look on the bright side but it was clear that she too had contemplated every possible outcome. She was such a strong women, it amazed me how poised she was after everything she had been through.

"I have some news for you." I smiled slightly trying to cheer up our conversation.

"Do tell dear. I too have news for you." Narcissa responded sounding happier than she had before.

"Well, you're going to have another grandchild." I smiled as she gasped and tears escaped her eyes.

"Oh that's fantastic. Draco always told me he'd never settle for just one." I chuckled slightly and subconsciously rubbed my currently flat stomach.

"I'm going to name it with a constellation. I want to continue the tradition. So what news do you have for me?" Narcissa nodded sipping her butterbeer.

"Well as I'm sure you know now, Blaise becomes head of the manor once he graduates and takes over the family business, as Draco would have done with me but since he cannot your mother and I are going to share my manor so that Blaise can have Zabini manor. Violet didn't want me getting lonely in Malfoy manor alone." I smiled.

"That's a great idea." I replied having forgotten about the manor situation.

"That's not all though, together Violet and I have just brought a bit more land and walled it so that you can build a house there too. That way help with the children will never be far away and you won't have to worry about paying rent or anything. We'll have our own estate." I gasped and leaned forward to hug her.

"Thank you so much! I've been so worried about where I shall live with the kids!" I was the happiest I had been in over a month. I could stop worrying about my future now. I had a great job, willing babysitters and time to build a house.

"You're welcome dear. Now I think we best go do some shopping for your new house and you can tell me how your injuries are." She smiled as we walked to the furniture store. I looked down at my knee.

"Not too bad, my arm should be out of the sling soon but my knee will take a few months to heal and the rest of it's only a little extra pain so I can handle it." I explained as we walked. Narcissa nodded and we continued on.

We spent the rest of the day shopping for furniture and talking. Narcissa had decided not to move any of Draco's stuff from Hogwarts until we all left so that it wouldn't feel too empty. I also found out that Andromeda had been a great support for Narcissa recently and they were on excellent terms again, both having gone through the same thing. Narcissa wouldn't allow me to pay for a single thing all day and when I asked why she said "Think of it as a gift from Draco."

*******Thanks*********

This chapter was absolutely heart-breaking for me to write! I've had a similar experience to this one when something is so painful that you kind of shut yourself off to it. Unfortunately you can only hold it in for so long. Thanks for reading. More to come! Please review xoxo


	21. One year later

Chapter 22 – September 1st – 1 year later

Today I started my new job! I am officially the head of the Department of Magical law enforcement. A lot's happened in a year. Scorpius is now three and already showing signs of magic, just this morning he turned his sister's hair pink! That's another thing, I now have a daughter. Lyra Andromeda Malfoy was born on February 7th. She's beautiful with a tiny amount of blonde hair and silvery eyes. The whole world now knows I'm a pureblood and my name is officially Hermione Zabini. It took a week to build my house, with magic of course. It's a four bedroom house with a library, large kitchen and pantry, dining room, living room, play room, study and an animal room. Currently Aries is the only resident in that room but I've been considering getting a puppy too. I hear they are great for children and I've always wanted one.

I do all the chores around the house the muggle way, it helps me think. Lyra's got plenty of friends to play with, Ginny and Harry had a boy, named James in September, Lavender and Ron had a little girl, named Rosalee in December and Blaise and Pansy had a little boy named, Hunter Draco Zabini in July. Blaise often talks to me telepathically asking questions about the baby to check he's doing everything right. He finally proposed to Pansy and they plan to get married in December. Ron and Lavender have been married since last spring and Ginny and Harry just tied the knot on July 29th. As for me I haven't even looked at another guy since Draco. I wear my ring every day and the picture in my locket still hasn't changed, I guess you could say I'm still mourning but every time I watch one of my friends marry I can't help but think that it should be Draco and I.

Narcissa and Violet take the kids every other weekend to give me time off. It gives me chance to be with my friends again. We usually spend Friday's at Ginny's and Harry's, Saturday at Ron and Lavender's and Sunday's at either the manor or my house. This weekend is my weekend off, I haven't been going to Harry's since their wedding letting the two of them settle into life as a married couple but they've already invited me to dinner in a fortnight for James' birthday.

I had just dropped Scorpius and Lyra at the manor and began hanging out the laundry when I saw Harry coming towards me through the garden (He had a key). "Oh hey Harry what are you doing here?" I smiled still hanging out the washing.

"Just thought I'd drop in. You know it amazes me how you have time to do all of this." I raised my eyebrow at him suspecting that he was lying. He sighed and chuckled.

"Okay you caught me. I came to tell you that I've set you up on a blind date tonight." He smirked. I glared at him.

"No way." I replied simply as I finished hanging out the laundry.

"Oh come on Mi, it's been over a year and you haven't even looked at another guy. I think you'll like this one, he's quite the handsome chap." He smiled again. I rolled my eyes and sat on the bench where Harry joined me.

"Has it occurred to you that I don't want to move on?" It was Harry's turn to roll his eyes.

"Of course but I think it's time we get you back onto the dating scene. Draco would have wanted you to be happy."

"Well I am happy, as happy as I can be. I'm not going." I snapped slightly.

"Please! I've already told him you'll meet him tonight. You've never failed at anything before so why fail at love?" I scoffed at his obvious attempt at provoking me to go.

"I didn't fail at love. I had love and I still have love so no I'm not going." Harry sighed.

"Please Hermione, just give it a shot. If at the end of tonight you still feel the same then you can go back to normal life and no harm done but you're never going to get anywhere in life if you just give up." I looked out across my perfectly trimmed garden. Could I really do this to Draco? Going on a date wouldn't mean I've forgotten him though.

"Fine, just tonight, but I'm wearing my ring." Harry chuckled.

"Thank you so much, this guys just moved here and I thought I'd help him out with his terrible love life. I'm so glad I don't have to let him down" I rolled my eyes and went inside.

"He better not be annoying. What time tonight and where?" I said at last.

"Uh 8pm, at Café Noir by the leaky cauldron." I nodded I had three hours to get ready. Harry was lucky I loved both him and that café.

_Urgh why am I nervous?_ I thought to myself angrily. "I've gotta dash Hermione, see ya soon, let me know how it goes!" Harry yeller leaving.

_Hey sis what's up? _ I heard in my head and smirked.

_Blaise, Harry just set me up on a blind date._ I replied doing the dishes.

_That's great Hermione. It'll be good for you._ I smiled weakly at his response. Maybe everyone was right. Maybe this would help me begin to move on from Draco.

_Don't worry sis, a date doesn't mean you're forgetting him._ Blaise said and I smiled at his ability to always know my worst fear. _ Thanks, I'll keep you updated on how it goes. Can you send Pansy round to help me with some clothes?_

I didn't get an answer but five minutes later I got a knock on the door. It was Pansy, Ginny was right behind her smiling.

"Come on girl! We've only got two and a half hours to get you ready!" They said together before giggling and walking past me and up the stairs to my dressing room. I rolled my eyes and dried my hands before following them, after all I was still in my work clothes.

"So are you excited !?" Ginny squealed as we waited for Pansy to stop rooting around in my walk in wardrobe. I sighed heavily.

"Uh I guess" I replied trying, and failing to sound enthusiastic.

"Come on Mi, this is your first date in over a year! Cheer up, I bet you'll have a great time." Pansy yelled through.

"That's what I'm afraid of." I muttered as pansy came back through her arms laden with clothes.

She through them down and came to sit next to Ginny and I. She wrapped her arm around me and I gave a weak smile. Pansy and I had become great friends over the past year, we both struggled through Draco's death and were both able to be there for each other on our darkest days.

"Having fun doesn't mean you've forgotten him." She whispered softly.

"I know, it's just hard. We were meant to be together forever. Not for 6 weeks." I replied looking down at the ring that had yet to leave my finger. "I miss him so much." I choked as I felt a hot tear roll down my cheek.

"I know hun. That's why you need this tonight." Ginny whispered rubbing my back. "You better not cry when I've done you're make up!" I laughed slightly at her joke. "Come on girl let's get you ready"

*****3 hours later*****

When I walked in I was led to a table for two in one corner of the café. My hair was in long loose waves, Ginny had done a fantastic job with my makeup and Pansy had picked out a beautiful black one-shouldered dress.

I looked down at my watch and saw that I was a few minutes early. I fiddled with my ring pulling it on and off. I ordered a coke as I waited, this was my favourite muggle café in the entire world. The time ticked by slowly and 8pm came along at snail's pace. Then 8 pm passed and I grew agitated. He was late. That is if he was coming at all. Maybe he found out I was a single mother of two children and bailed. Maybe it was all just a joke, but would Harry really get himself involved with that?

I waited ten minutes before I decided I'd had enough. This really was some kind of sick joke. How could Harry do this to me? I stood to leave and collected my purse as I turned around I saw my date. Slowly I shrank back down to my seat and dropped my bag on the floor, not really caring where it fell.

I couldn't believe my eyes. "Draco…" and my world went black.

******Thanks********

Sorry it's a short chapter for now, having a smidge of writer's block. Next time we will get to find out all about Hermione's date and we will find out a little more about the year that we've missed. Please review xoxo


	22. Home

Chapter 23 –

I felt warm when I woke up. The first thing I see are the flames licking wood in the fireplace as its warmth hits me. I blink a few times and move slightly. Harry faces appears in front of me looking concerned. I realise I'm on Harry's sofa. I pull myself up to a sitting position pulling the blanket with me as Harry hands me a glass of water.

"What happened mi?" Harry asked sighing as he sat down.

"I'm sorry Harry, I know I ruined the date and I'm sorry it's just I looked at him and all I could see was Draco." I admitted sadly, starring into the flames as I took a sip of my water.

"Mione…" I ignored Harry and continued,

"Don't say anything, I know I've got to move on, it's just so hard. I think about him all the time." I replied grumpily. Harry and the others had told me so many times that I should move on but none of them knew what it was like to lose the love of your life.

"Hermione listen to me!" Harry shouted as I continued to ramble.

"What Harry?" I snapped my eyes snapping to his face.

"You weren't imagining Draco. It was Draco. He wanted to surprise you tonight" I gaped at him and shot up off the sofa, causing my head to spin. Was this all real? Or was I still dreaming?

"Where is he?" I asked frantically. It couldn't be true could it? Maybe Harry was just trying to make me feel better. Maybe I'm still dreaming. Maybe I'm full on hallucinating.

"He's out on the patio, he didn't want to scare you." He said, his voice fading as I ran to the back door. Every single step took a lifetime, the world was moving in slow motion, I could hear my breath in my ears, and everything else was silent. Finally I reached the door and slowly pulled it open taking a deep breath. There on the edge of the patio, leaning heavily on crutches was Draco. He was staring out in to the distance and I took a moment to take in his appearance.

His blonde hair was longer and swept casually about his head, he had a few scars on his forearms and his face looked slightly drained. He turned as he heard me step out onto the patio.

His grey eyes were bright as he smirked at me. "Hey baby" he whispered softly. I cried and jumped to hug him.

"Please tell me this is all real. Tell me I'm not dreaming this time. Tell me you're really here." I whispered hurriedly as I stared into his perfect face. "No retreat, baby girl" was his response and I knew at last that he had returned. I knew that all of my dreams had finally come true, I had everything I needed right now and words aren't enough to describe how happy I feel.

He motioned for me to sit and slowly followed placing all his weight on the crutches.

"No surrender Draco. You have no idea how much I've longed to say that to you." I breathed freely for the first time in a year. I was still in shock. How could this be happening? He had died. I'd seen his grave, I'd cried, I'd mourned, I dreamt that he returned, and now he has.

"I hear you're a published author and the head of magical law enforcement these days?" He smiled at me. I was silent for a few moment taking everything in. Slowly I nodded afraid that I'd burst into tears if I opened my mouth.

"I've missed you so much baby, the thought of getting to you is the only got me through these last few months, and I'm so proud of you. You didn't let my death stop you from achieving your dreams, you're so strong and beautiful and brave." He replied slowly moving over to the bench I had sat on. He put all of his weight on the crutches as he moved, clearly he struggled to move.

"H…how?" I whispered looking at him confused. He gave a brief smile but I could see the pain in his eyes. I had so many questions.

"My Father staged my death. He made me watch everyone at my funeral, he made me watch when he saw that you went to the grave. I could see the pain in you and I was powerless against it. They kept giving me a potion which completely paralysed me, all I could do was watch." I took his hand in mine and held it tightly. I could scarcely imagine the horrors that he had been through.

"How did you survive? How are you here?" I asked breathlessly. I was smiling but then again, I don't think I will be able to stop smiling after tonight.

"The wards were down. I used every ounce of energy I had left to apparate to Harry, I knew he'd be living in Godric's Hollow as he always told me that's where he'd move after graduation. I nearly died but he got me all the medical attention I needed." He smiled briefly, I made a mental note to thank Harry a million times. "Oh how I've missed those eyes, and those lips." He smiled again and leaned in for a kiss.

I kissed him with a year's worth of passion. He was back and he was mine, finally mine. Every ounce of tears, pain and heartache was worth it for this moment.

"I promise I'm never going to miss another birthday of Scorpius'" He whispered against my lips and I chuckled. We had a year's worth of catching up to do but right now I just wanted to get him home.

"I know. Come home with me Draco Malfoy" I whispered softly stroking his cheek.

"Any day baby girl, any day." He replied before hoisting himself onto the crutches again. We slowly made our way back into the house. Harry was in the kitchen as we walked through and Ginny was by the kettle, both smiling.

"Thank you so much you two. I owe you everything, We'll speak soon, I just want to take him home for now." I smiled brightly as the two nodded. Ginny came and hugged me whispering _sometimes dreams do come true_ as Harry stood by Draco and shook his hand.

"I'll send your medicine over in the morning. I'm glad you two finally have each other." Draco gave a swift nod and shook Harry's hand before leaning back onto his crutches as we made our way to the door.

"Ready Dray?" I said looping my arm in his. He nodded and I focused on home before feeling the familiar tugging sensation. We landed just outside my gate and walked up the little path to the door. Draco stared around in amazement.

"This house never use to be here, we're so close to the manors." He commented staring at the house.

"We built it last year and now the two manors and this house are all walled in." I explained turning the key. My huge red door swung open and in we went. I loved being the girl behind the red door.

We walked into the entrance hall and I took our coats putting them in the cupboard. There was a large stairway in the middle of the entrance hall and 4 doors. The first door led to the kitchen, the second to the dining room, third to the pets' room and 4th to a small bathroom downstairs. "I was actually about to get a dog so that Aries isn't too lonely." I explained as Aries joined us in the entrance hall and instantly rubbed up against Draco's legs.

"It's beautiful in here Hermione, you've done a great job." Draco smiled happily looking around.

"There's lots more, come on I'll show you." I said starting up the stairs and then remembering that Draco would take longer. Eventually we made it to the second floor.

"We've got the games room, the living room, the library and my study on this floor. I didn't want the kids to be able to eat in the living room so I put it on a different floor." Draco poked a head in each of the rooms. He laughed when he saw the library took up half the floor.

"One more floor to see." I said as we progressed up the last flight of stairs. "Up here is the bedrooms and my dressing room. Each room also has an en suite." I explained as we reached the landing.

"That's Scorpius' room." I said pointing to the blue room that was just visible with the door cracked open. Draco smiled as he looked around the room at the little snitches and qudditch players on the walls.

"This is lyra's room." I said as we went to the next room. Draco gave me a confused look as we went into the pink room. "Lyra?" He said confused.

"Harry didn't tell you?" I asked, why would Harry not tell him he had a daughter?

"No I asked him not to tell me anything other than what your job was and if you were dating." He said casually.

"Lyra's our daughter, I had her in February." I explained. His smiled broadened as he went in as picked up her favourite little lion. "She looks just like you" I added.

"I've missed so much of my children's lives." He exclaimed at last. I chuckled slightly, he was such a good father I knew that in the future him missing their births would never be brought up.

"It's okay Draco, we'll make up for that in the future. As for now she's 6 1/2 months old, she has your eyes and by the look of it probably your hair as well." I explained smiling.

"What's her full name?"

"Lyra Andromeda Malfoy" I replied smiling. "You can meet her tomorrow, I think she'll end up being a daddy's girl. She's so fussy around me." I could see the brim of tears in his eyes.

"What else?" He asked desperate for every ounce of information.

"Well Scorpius is already showing signs of magic, this morning he turned Lyra's hair pink. All the others have kids too. You know about James I presume?" He nodded. "Well Ron and Lavender had a little girl and Blaise and Pansy had a little boy. Their son's middle name is Draco." He nodded slowly taking everything in.

"Does anyone else know you're back?" He shook his head.

"I wanted to see you first. I told Harry that no one else could know until I had healed enough to see you." He replied and I kissed him. I had missed him so much I could barely believe that he was here, in my arms.

"One more room to see" I whispered against his lips and he nodded. I led him to my room. The biggest in the house. There was a large plush carpet, hardwood floors, a huge window seat (like the one I'd had in my head girl's room) and a Queen Size bed, which currently had black sheets on. There were several photos in beautiful frames on the walls and on my bedside table there was a picture of Draco, the last picture I had of him, smiling and laughing.

"It's beautiful." He replied softly, taking it all in.

"I don't know about you but I'm ready to go to bed. Hugging you all night seems like perfection right now." I whispered. Draco nodded and we made our way to the bed, not caring that we were fully clothed. We led there for hours just hugging and enjoying the feel of each other once more. It was perfect. It was something I had dreamt about a thousand times but each time I would wake up disappointed or crying. This time I knew I would wake up smiling.

Thank you for reading and yes he's back! I always knew that this would happen as it leads to the next part of our tale I hope you enjoyed this chapter and there will be more coming soon!


	23. A sweet surprise

Chapter 24- He's home

Draco's P.O.V

I blinked a few times as I woke up. I felt the familiar arm around me and smiled. I was finally home, I had longed for this moment for over a year. I turned around slowly so as not to wake Hermione. I studied her beautiful features and smiled, she had barely changed in the past year and her face was so perfectly relaxed. I leaned forward and kissed her gently on the forehead.

"Morning gorgeous" she mumbled as she began to stir. I smirked, this was heaven, this was all I ever needed.

"No retreat" I whispered softly stroking her arm. She smiled before opening her violet eyes again.

"No surrender." She replied as she dragged herself out of bed. "Come on we've got a big day" She said strolling into the bathroom. I groaned before pulling myself from my bed and following her to the bathroom.

It didn't take us too long to get ready and soon enough I was making slow progression down the stairs before arriving in the kitchen just as Hermione placed a plate of English breakfast on the table.

"This looks amazing" I growled, hungrily digging in. Hermione ate hers laughing at my lack of manners. "So what's the plan today?" I asked, taking a sip of my orange juice.

"Well I thought we'd head to zabini manor first and see Blaise, then head across to Malfoy manor where you can see your mother and meet little Lyra." I nodded as Harry strolled in with my bag of medicine.

"Morning you two, I see you haven't stopped smiling yet." We both laughed.

"Do you want some breakfast Harry?" Hermione asked taking my plate. He shook his head.

"No, I've actually just got to pop into work this morning, but Ginny and I would love it if you two would come to dinner this evening" We both nodded eagerly. Harry nodded before leaving.

"Draco can I ask you something?" Hermione asked once he had left and I began taking my many morning pills.

"You just did." I replied smugly, to which I received a smack around the head.

"How long are you on the crutches for?" I smiled at her question, of course I hadn't actually told her what was wrong with me.

"Only a month or two now, since escaping I've had trouble putting weight on my legs but the nurse reckons that they'll be back to normal in a few months. She says it's an effect of the paralysation potion they kept giving me." She nodded thoughtfully for a moments and I noticed a sadness in her eyes.

"It's not your fault Mi" I assured her softly taking her hand.

"If I had just told people sooner…" I sighed at her and gently steered her face so that it was facing mine.

"They would have done it anyway. They don't follow the newspapers, in fact I'm not even sure if they know the truth now." I replied simply. "Now, no more sadness, we've got to visit my best friend." She nodded and we both stood. I kissed her once more and we made our way to Zabini manor.

We made our way up the long path and finally reached the door of the manor. I knocked loudly and Hermione took my hand breathing deeply. After a few moments the door swung open and in front of me stood a smiling pansy. Her hair was longer now, and her face looked a little more tired, but I suppose that's what a child does to you (especially with Blaise's hyperactivity genes). Her face completely changed when she saw me. First she looked confused, then ecstatic and then back to confused. "Oh my god" she muttered before turning around, "BLAISE" she screamed before turning back and continuing to gape at me.

"Hey Pans" I said feeling nervous for some reason. Truth be told I felt so guilty for all of the pain this lot had endured at my "death". I smiled as Pansy ran forward and hugged me tightly. "It's you. It's really you." She whispered happily as she hugged me.

"It's really me" I replied. A few seconds later Blaise came sprinting towards the door.

"Pans what's wr…" He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Pansy hugging me. It took a few seconds to realise who he was looking at.

"Just can't get rid of some people." He smirked as he came up and hugged me as well. After a few seconds he pulled back and punched me hard in the arm.

"What the hell was that for?" I shouted rubbing my now bruised arm.

"That was for making me cry in front of Potter again." He laughed, I looked at him for a second before remembering what he had said after our last new years together. I laughed at him.

"How are you alive?" Blaise and Pansy asked together as we walked through to the dining room.

"My father faked my death and kept me captive. You know, what every loving father does." I replied chuckling as we sat down.

"Well I for one am ecstatic that you're back, it just wasn't the same without you here. But you're back now and that's all that matters. You can be my best man now!" Blaise said gleefully I nodded, I was glad I hadn't missed his wedding when we were younger we made a promise that we would be each other's best man no matter what and I'm glad I didn't have to break that promise. We all sat down and I was filled in on what had happened over the last year, I even got to meet little Hunter, it was safe to say he was going to be in slytherin, he was only a baby but you could just tell. While we were talking, I noticed that Hermione was wearing the ring I had told her about and smiled, we had such a great future to look forward to.

****Around midday********

"I wish we could stay longer but Mother has yet to discover that I'm here. I must go and see her." I said as Hermione and I stood to leave Zabini manor. Blaise and Pansy nodded understandingly, they both gave me another tight hug.

"It's good to have you back mate." Blaise whispered as he embraced me. I smirked, it was the best feeling in the world to be back where I belonged.

"Feel free to come round to dinner tomorrow evening." I smiled as Hermione and I were walking out of the door. They both nodded eagerly and we left, making our way over to my childhood home.

Hermione knocked loudly and we stood waiting. I smiled as I saw my mother, she was laughing at something as she swung the door open. Her black and blonde hair was in a loose bun and she was wearing some soft purple robes. She froze when she saw me. "Draco…" she whispered before passing out. Hermione waved her wand to prevent her from hitting the ground and levitated her over to the loveseat in the entrance hall.

"Why do people keep passing out when they look at me?" I asked in fake concern. Hermione laughed as she checked on Narcissa.

"Cissa who was that?" A voice yelled from the other room and soon Violet came strolling through in long black robes. She too froze when she saw me.

"How are you alive?" She asked in shock.

"It's a long story, I'll explain everything when mother comes round." I replied. She nodded before coming forward and embracing me tightly, I hugged her back. She raised her wand and levitated Narcissa into the next room which had been converted into a living room of sorts with large sofa's surrounding the fireplace. Sat on the sofa in there was little Scorpius.

I couldn't stop smiling when I saw him, his blond locks fell gracefully around his face and his violet eyes were as bright as ever. He turned and stared at me as we entered the room.

"DDAAADDDDDDYY!" he screamed as he ran over his arms stretched out wide. I let myself fall to my knees and embraced him into a tight hug as he reached me. He had remembered me! I was so frightened that my little boy would have forgotten all about me, after all last time I saw him he had only just started walking and talking. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hermione smiling at us.

"I knew you come bwack daddy" Scorpius said loudly as he stepped back from me.

"I love you Scorp." I replied noticing that the ring was still firmly on his finger. Slowly I hoisted myself back up onto my crutches. Hermione walked over to a little crib on the other side of the room and was cradling a baby as she came back. I looked carefully at the baby in her arms, unable to hold her without falling, I moved over to the sofa and sat down and gestured for Hermione to hand me the baby.

"Hello Lyra, I'm you daddy" I cooed as I looked into the silver eyes of my daughter. I felt an overwhelming sense of love for her already. She blinked a few times before giggling and grabbing my outstretched finger.

"She's perfect" I said looking at Hermione who nodded happily.

"Draco!" My mother gasped loudly as she shot up. Clearly she woke with a bit of a start. I handed Lyra back to Hermione, who went to put her back in her crib, and lifted myself off of the crouch moving over to mother as Scorpius followed close behind. She put her hands on my face softly looking into my eyes.

"I thought I'd lost you forever!" she smiled brightly as if touching my face made it real.

"I know, I'm sorry." I whispered looking at the floor as she just pulled me in for the tightest of hugs.

"There's no time for sorry now you're back and that's all that matters." Mother whispered into my ear. I smiled, "and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." Finally I'm with my family and all is well…

Sorry short chap again just a filler that made me smile! Please review xoxo


	24. My children and my enemies

Chapter 25

It's been two weeks since I officially returned and finally things were beginning to settle down again. I had learned a lot as well, Potter and Weasle are aurors, Pansy writes for the daily prophet, weaslette and brown are both stay at home mums and Blaise is head of Zabini corp while mother heads up Malfoy industries, a role I will take now that I'm back. Honestly I think she's going to be glad to finally get a peaceful life. As for my beautiful fiancé, not only is she head of the department of magical law enforcement at the ministry but she is also a popular author after having written about the journey of the golden trio from first year to the war. Our children are amazing they smile and I find myself full of pride. Scorp seems to remember me which is surprising considering he was so young, but he just keeps saying "I knew you'd come back daddy". I'm still on the crutches but I'm moving a lot faster now, I know it was a risk me coming back so soon especially now the press have found out and are spending the majority of their time following us whenever we leave the estate.

Today I come home with a surprise for Hermione and I think she'll love it. I open the door to the house and smile as I hear my typical welcoming words. "Dray is that you?" coming from the playroom. I poke my head around the door when I get there and smile as Hermione plays with Scorp while Lyra playas with toys on her mat.

"Hey beautiful, I've got a surprise for you." She gave me a quizzical look and I pushed the door open slightly letting go of the lead in my hand. The little Huskita puppy ran through and straight across to Hermione. She smiled as she touched it's soft fur and starred at it's blue eyes. His fur was different shades of blonde, except his face, which had a black mask.

Scorpius had a great time feeling it's soft fur and giggled as it licked his hand.

"Dray, I didn't think you would let me get a dog!" Hermione laughed getting up and coming across to kiss me. I pulled her close and kissed her forehead as we watched the puppy roll over next to Scorp. "I know I said that hun, but after all you've been through I think you deserve a few things that you want."

"I got what I most wanted when I got you back." She whispered against my chest, I smiled.

"So what do you want to name him?" I asked, I made sure that I had gotten a puppy without a name so that Hermione could name him.

"I like the name Reuben. What do you think?" She said leaning back and looking into my eyes.

"It's perfect Mia." I said waving my wand and watching as a little name tag appeared on Reuben's collar.

"Oh I can't wait for the girls to see him tonight, he's so beautiful Dray." I smirked.

"Yes we better get ready for tonight hadn't we?" I smiled as she nodded. She picked up Lyra as I held Scorpius' hand and using one crutch made our way to the kitchen. I set up a play pen for Scorp and lyra with soft sides to ensure that they didn't get hurt. Then I set up a pen for Reuben with water, food and a bed. Then Hermione and I began preparing dinner. We decided on a chicken pie so I got on with the mixture while Hermione made the pastry.

Before long it was time for the dinner party and with the kids in bed and the puppy in his pen we welcomed our guests. The girls all fell in love with Reuben and the boys all had a great time telling me that I was whipped. Either way it turned into a pretty great night. I was glad that I had the people around me that I loved so much, they always made me realise that no matter what we went through it was worth it to enjoy nights like this, just having fun together.

"Bye Harry, Ginny. Blaise I'll call you about the deal at 9 am sharp tomorrow, don't forget! See you all soon" I called as our friends left.

"That was one of the best nights we've had in a long time. I think it's because we were whole again." Hermione said as we went back into the kitchen and began to clear up. Hermione re-filled Reuben's food and water while I began washing the dishes.

"I think Reuben really helped." I laughed looking at our adorable pup, "But I must admit I can't wait to crawl into bed." Hermione laughed as we finished clearing up and made our way upstairs leaving a little night light for Reuben who was scared of the dark.

"Let's check on the kids and get off to bed." Hermione whispered behind me as we slowly made our way up the stairs. I nodded and headed for Scorpius' room. He wasn't there.

"Maybe he's in Lyra's room. He sleeps on her window sill sometimes, I have to carry him back to his own bed, he's so protective of her the little cutie." Hermione whispered, I nodded smiling at how adorable my children continued to be. We crossed the landing and I pushed open the door to Lyra's room. Hermione gasped at the sight in front of us.

There was no sight of Scorpius and Lyra was in someone's arms. Bellatrix smiled widely as she saw us. "Beautiful little lady you've got here mudblood." I leaped forward and she cackled as she disappeared. Her cackles echoed through our silent room. I turned just in time to see Hermione fall to the floor in tears. I pulled myself over to her and wrapped her in a hug. "Our babies" She cried into my chest.

I couldn't help having Flashback's to the first time this happened and I had a feeling Hermione was feeling the same right now. "You know what we are going to have to do don't you?" I whispered into Hermione's chest slowly she nodded.

"The rings" She whispered choking on her coughs. "It's a trap Dray. They'll be waiting for us. I can't lose you again." I held her tightly for a few more seconds.

"Contact Blaise using your telepathy and tell him and the others to come to ours. Tell them to check on Reuben and the use the three rings to follow us. Make sure they each come an hour apart. Hopefully that they can sneak in. Hermione nodded against my chest.

"We'll be okay hun. We've made it through once and we know what to expect this time. Just remember No Retreat, No surrender." I said getting up and conjuring three rings leaving them on the bed side and spelling them like the rest of our rings.

"Let's go together. They'll expect us either way." Hermione nodded and we held hands before Hermione held her necklace tightly, and before long we felt the familiar tug of apparition.

We landed in a cold, dark room. "Well that didn't take nearly as long as I expected." The silky voice of my father sounded through the room…

Hermione's P.O.V

"Where are my children Lucius?" I growled praying that even this cold hearted man wouldn't have it in his heart to kill children. Then again this was the guy that tried to kill his own son.

"Tut Tut where are your manners mudblood. My filthy grandchildren are safe for now." I rolled my eyes and whipped out my wand. Draco shifted behind me and his wand flicked out as well. Lucius smirked. I wanted to move I knew that if we didn't get out of this room one of the others would be appearing any minute now. I made for the door and swung it open just as a spell flew narrowly missed my head. I spun around and the fighting commenced, Bellatrix appeared out of nowhere and we began exchanging hexes all the time I was backing up around corners into dark corridors getting away from that room. It made everything hard work, I had to keep an eye on where I was walking, dodge hexes and send hexes all at the same time, but if having two kids had taught me anything it was how to multitask.

I had no idea where Lucius and Draco had gone, this house was bigger than it had seemed at first, everything was cold and dark but that didn't make much difference. I hate to say it but Bellatrix was slowly beginning to overpower me. A couple of her more basic hexes hit me I just kept thinking of my children and how they needed me. Out of nowhere Ginny ran in and began lighting the fire so we could see, joined me in fighting off Bella.

"Are you alone?" I hissed as one of Bellatrix's spells smashed one of the window. She shook her head.

"Blaise and Harry are with Draco, Ron and Lavender have gone to look for the children and Pansy will be along in a moment." I nodded as we continued to battle unfortunately our lack of concentration allowed Bellatrix the chance to send a few quick hexes one hit Ginny and she went flying backwards and slammed through a door. I kept fending off Bellatrix and stepped back through the door to check on Ginny. With a flick of my wand she was conscious and back up ready to fight again. As I stepped back again and crashed into another body. I spun and realised we were in the room with the boys. Now all 5 of us were back to back fending off Lucius, Bellatrix and a hooded figure.

Everything was happening too fast. Harry was knocked out by the hooded figure, Ginny bent down to check on him and was quickly blown against another wall by Lucius and before we knew it we were all one to one. I shot a hex at Bellatrix and finally hit her she flew back through the door and into the other room. Blaise shot a curse at the hooded figure who stumbled back and his hood fell off. Blaise gasped and I spun around he was gaping at the previously hooded figure clearly shocked. Draco was still ferociously battling Lucius and didn't get chance to turn around but Lucius was smirking.

"Dad?" Blaise whispered quietly, both just stood there staring for a few moments. I stopped moving, this was my dad? The dad that Blaise always stormed of when I brought him up. His dark hair was long and messy. His eyes were a shocking blue but somehow despite how bright they were, they were filled darkness. His face was bristly and you could tell he'd been living rough for a while.

"I'm disgusted that my son associates with a mudblood." He growled his voice was very deep and I continued to stare at him. This is not how I expected to meet my father.

"I'm so ashamed to call you my father" Blaise spat. "You can't even recognise your own daughter." He growled sending a curse at his father, who dodged it easily.

"What's this nonsense?" He growled pausing slightly. Clearly he was questioning what he knew about his family.

"She's not a mudblood, she's my twin." Our father recoiled slightly before his eyes narrowed.

"Prove it." He replied shortly. I looked at Blaise who was looking at me nervously.

"You shouldn't need proof! Look at her! She has mother's eyes, you do remember mother don't you? The woman you claimed to love for years." Again he recoiled before turning to me and really looking at me for the first time. His face changed and his features seemed softer.

"Your mother lied to me." He replied simply stepping forward slightly. Our little reunion was short lived however as I had to hop out of the way of a curse coming from Bellatrix. Spells were flying about the room again in no time. Once again I was forced to jump to avoid another curse by Bellatrix, but this one flew straight into Draco and hit him straight in the back he shouted out in pain as the crucio struck him and he was unable to dodge a purple curse that flew from Lucius' wand. In what felt like slow motion he fell to his knees and crumpled to the floor.

"Draco, please don't die, please I need you!" I screamed as I watched his body fall limp to the ground. I jumped to the floor next to him and pulled the body towards me and clutched his Platinum hair as Ginny and Harry took over the fighting I was vaguely aware of others entering the room. "C'mon open those silvery eyes for me. Please Draco. Draco!" I screamed but my world went Black as I felt pain shoot through my whole body from the back.

**Blaise's P.O.V**

Everything was bittersweet at the moment. My father finally returned to the man I once knew only to be carted to a mental hospital as a result of the curse he was under. I felt bad that Hermione never got to know him but he wasn't the man that helped raise me until I was 13. He had changed and unfortunately that was the only man Hermione ever got to meet. He was so blinded that it was he who cursed Hermione. He cursed a teenager who had their back to him. I missed my father but the man I loved left a long time ago replaced by this shell. Hopefully the hospital can help him to recover but if I never speak to him again it might be too soon after what he's done to my family.

Lyra was fine but for some unknown reason little Scorpius was fighting for his life. I needed him to live, I needed some hope that everything was going to be alright again. Hermione and Draco still showed no sign of recovery, each just lay there in their beds, looking pale and lifeless.

My mother and Narcissa had come in at the last moment and helped us to defeat my father, Lucius and Bellatrix. Lucius and Bellatrix had both been given the kiss already, good riddance. My mother now needed the support of a stick when walking and Narcissa had a nasty scar along her jawline.

As for the others, Pansy hadn't been much of the fighting so she was okay and currently babysitting all of the children, Ron and Lavender had hardly left Harry's bedside as he received treatment for the scars that no one could get to heal, although I suspected that he would heal faster when he knew that Ginny was okay. She kept coming in and out of consciousness a result of the amount of times she hit her head, but on the upside she had woken up about an hour ago and was thus far able to stay awake. Hopefully she stays awake properly now and Harry can get healed too.

In other news apparently we are all connected a prophecy or something, _the four pairs of lovers whose lives, once connected, would be forever entwined, the joining of the great houses of Slytherin and Gryffindor. The pairs although belonging to either Gryffindor or Slytherin would represent the whole of Hogwarts as each pairing could match a number houses._ That's what we had been told anyway and thinking about it did make sense, ever since Hermione and Draco had got together or lives worked together, we all had kids at the same time, all got engaged around the same time and our weddings were all underway.

As for the pairings being able to represent all of the houses I'm pretty sure I have that figured out too, Harry and Ginny could both have been put in either Gryffindor or Slytherin, Ron and Lavender could both have been either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, Hermione and Draco could both have also been in Ravenclaw (Hermione once told me she chose Gryffindor over Ravenclaw) and Pansy and I could have been in Slytherin or Gryffindor, but we both chose Slytherin based on our families.

So there it is our lives our entwined, we learned that as once Hermione and Draco went out cold this light surrounded us all and blasted everyone apart, as if trying to stop the fighting and that's when Narcissa remembered the Prophecy Trelawney had told her during the war.

I've been at Hermione's bedside for a while now, I'm trying to talk to her telepathically but her mind is completely closed off. I feel cold inside without her there, she's my twin, my other. I need her to be okay, I've only had her in my life for a couple of years and I'm not ready to lose her just yet and as for Draco, who is also in the bed on my other side, I only just got him back I can't lose him again. He's my best friend, and he's meant to be my best man.

"Come on mate, I really need you to wake up. Losing you once was hard enough, don't make me lose you again please." I whispered looking at his pale form.

"Can't get rid of me that easily." He groaned back as slowly his eyes flickered open and a smirk settled on his face.

"Oh I've never been so glad to see that stupid smirk." I said handing him some water and running to call the nurse.

"Urgh my head hurts." He groaned again squeezing his eyes tightly closed. "What happened?"

"I don't really know where to begin on that one buddy but I can tell you this, it's all over now. Now we just have to heal." I replied smiling at the thought.

"Hermione?" He questioned looking at the bed next to me.

"She's been out for a while… so has Scorpius. No one has been able to wake either of the mate, I'm sure they'll be okay, we just need a little hope." I said trying to make him feel better. I could tell by his face that what I said hadn't really helped. His son and his fiancé were lying in hospital beds fighting for their lives and all any of us could do was sit by their sides. This family had the worst luck when it came to being happy and being together, we needed a lot more than hope.

********Thank you!***********

Thanks for reading, I hope you like this chapter, I've been feeling in the mood for writing recently so hopefully this is a good chapter for you guys! Let me know what you think will happen ! Thanks for reading xoxo


	25. A star named Scorpius

Chapter 27

Draco's P.O.V

"Come on little man stay strong for mummy and daddy." I whispered holding Scorpius' tiny hand in mine. He looked so frail in the tiny bed. My beautiful baby boy with his blonde locks sprawled around his head. I had missed so much of his life, I made a promise to myself that I would be there for him for the rest of my life.

The doctors were still baffled as to why I was out for so long, when I had woken up I was fine. I still needed the crutches but only for a little bit now. The only sign that I had been involved in a fight at all was the healing gashes on my chest and stomach. I spent the majority of my days shifting between Hermione's bed and Scorpius' bed, neither one was improving greatly. If anything little Scorpius was getting worse. I sighed looking down at his pale face one more time before turning to leave. I had to see Hermione again, Blaise was still at her side, the poor guy had barely moved since I woke up. I felt bad for him because he was missing a part of himself and he couldn't check she was ok in anyway.

As I walked through the door to her room the first thing I noticed was that Blaise was smiling. My eyes shot to the bed and Hermione's violet eyes were looking back at me. She smiled, I rushed over and sat on her other side, taking her bandaged hand gently in mine.

"I thought I'd lost you back there Dray" She whispered weakly "It reminded me of a nightmare I had a year or so ago." I kissed her hand, breathing a sigh of relief. I had no idea how she'd managed to hold everything together whilst I was gone, it had only been a few days since I'd woken up and without her and Scorp I was completely lost, but then I'd always known she was stronger than me. She'd been through so much I could only hope that finally she would get happiness. It's the least she deserves.

"You've had me worried too beautiful." I whispered back taking in her features. She too had healing scars across her body, they said there was swelling on her brain which could have resulted in memory loss. "Do you remember everything?" I asked softly.

"I didn't originally remember past your death but Blaise and I have been talking and it all came back really fast. It really helps when your twin can share every memory with you. How are the children?" She asked clearly worried. I sighed.

"Lyra's fine she came to visit yesterday with Pansy but Scorpius isn't doing as well. They don't know what's wrong with him and they can't get him to wake up." I replied watching her face fall.

"I need to see him." I nodded slowly and the mediwitch, who had just finished checking Hermione's vitals went to get a wheelchair. We were both silent as I pushed her towards Scorpius' room and I could tell she was panicking about his life. When she saw him tears instantly formed in her eyes.

"Oh my baby boy" She whispered softly. I gulped as a lump formed in my throat.

"He'll be okay, we just have to hope." I whispered to her. After a few moments of looking at his tiny body Hermione reached forward and took his hand in hers. The effect was almost instantaneous. Everything moved in slow motion. The machines began bleeping loudly. Mediwitches came rushing in and surrounded our baby. We were ushered from the room and I had to pull a screaming Hermione away from the child she been with every day for the past two years. Once we were outside I pulled her chair around and pulled her in tight.

"He's dying Draco, I can feel it in my heart, He's dying!" Hermione wailed into my chest. I held her tightly and begged that she was wrong. Before long Blaise was running around the corner. He had felt the shift in Hermione's emotions. He wheeled her back to her room where there were mediwitches waiting to run some tests on her. I promised her I wouldn't move until I knew more. I stood and watched as Blaise wheeled her away trying to calm her down slightly, he turned back and gave me a sympathetic look. Once they rounded the corner I leant back against the wall and taking a deep breath I felt myself sliding down the wall. As I hit the floor I put my head in my hands and broke down.

This couldn't be happening, everything was falling apart and all I could do was sit here and watch. My baby boy had barely lived any of his life and now he was fighting to survive. I didn't care that tears were rolling freely down my cheeks I didn't care that I looked weak, I just wanted to know that my son was going to be okay. I just wanted to hold him, to hear his laugh and to see his smile.

"He'll be ok Draco." My head shot up shocked to see Potter standing in front of me.

"How did you know I was here?" I replied trying to still the shake in my hand as Potter slid down that wall next to me. This was the first time I'd seen him awake and about since they'd finally closed his scars, I presumed he'd still be on bed rest. "Are you ok?" I added not wanting to sound rude.

"I'll be fine, it's just a few more scars, I'm supposed to be resting but I've never been very good at that. Anyway, I don't know if it's anything to do with that Prophecy but since you and Hermione got closer I've had these feelings about where to go and when. How do you think I appeared at the Manor at New Years that time? If that prophecy taught me anything it's that you and I had the most to sort out." I blinked a few times, Potter had been around every corner since all of this and he had been the first one I thought of going to when I managed to escape from all of those barriers. Maybe it was the prophecy.

"Thank you, kinda makes me wish you weren't my enemy all those years Potter." I replied watching as he smirked a smirk that could easily match mine.

"You're getting soft Malfoy. The past is exactly where it belongs." He nodded clearly he too didn't want to be getting too soppy but in that moment of silence I could tell that our friendship had been solidified.

"I can't breathe without him Po…Harry." I admitted breaking the silence between us. I felt him sigh but couldn't quite look him in the eye. I knew his eyes would be filled with sorrow because none of us really knew what was going to happen next. He better than anyone knew that life was full of tragedy and you could never see it coming.

"Just breathe he's a strong little man." His words hung in the air as all either of us could do was pray that Harry, the boy wonder was right.

About 30 minutes later a Mediwitch came out looking Grim.

"Mr Malfoy?" She said gently, I stood up giving a quick wipe of my eyes.

"Yes" I replied my voice hoarse, I felt like I was choking on the lump lodged in my throat. Potter and I both stood up facing the Medi-witch in a mixture of nerves and anticipation.

"We've managed to stabilise little Scorpius and discover what's wrong with him." She said at first I was relieved but then I questioned why she was looking so grim. If he was stable that should be a good thing but her face told me it wasn't that simple.

"What is it?" I asked desperate for some good news but feeling the bad news rolling my way.

"A spell he was hit with means that his blood is slowly being poisoned. He needs a full blood transfusion today if he is to have even the slimmest chance of surviving." I pulled back sighing.

"Take my blood then" I replied instantly, if I could help I would do anything to be some form of help.

"I'm afraid it's not that easy your son's blood type is AB, it's very rare and you and your wife are both B type so we can take your blood and unfortunately we don't have any AB blood type left to use. We need someone to donate now." I nodded leaning back against the wall.

"There must be someone we can find." Potter said from behind me holding on to what hope we had left between us.

"I just don't know what to say. There has to be something we can do!" I yelled out hitting the wall. The mediwitch gave me a sympathetic look as Harry grabbed my arm and stopped me from doing anything stupid.

"I'm sorry Mr Malfoy, we can keep him comfortable but without a transfusion he'll be lucky to make it through the night." I gulped and nodded softly. My heart crashing to the floor as Harry muttered an _I'm sorry mate_ from beside me.

"Can I see him?" She nodded and led me in the room, I left Harry in the corridor and cautiously stepped towards my boy. There were a lot more tubes and wires now and my baby boy looked paler than before, if that was even possible.

"I love you my beautiful boy, mummy and Daddy are going to work really hard to get you the help you need." I whispered to his lifeless body as though he could hear me. "I'll be back soon my little man." I said as I turned to leave. I had to fill Hermione in.

****8**

She cried as I held her tight and told her about our little boy. Blaise had gone to fill the others in and Harry was forced by Ginny and Ron to get back to his bed to rest for a bit, soon enough we were all sat in silence, just together.

"I'm sorry we don't know anyone with that blood type Mi, but we'll find someone even if we have to ask members of the public." Ginny said reassuringly, she had been a lot better recently and they put her good health down to why Harry's scars were now remaining closed. Maybe this whole suspected prophecy thing wasn't as random as we'd all presumed.

"We have less than a day" Hermione replied sounding numb as she stared into space. I rubbed her shoulder.

"I know someone who has AB blood." Blaise interjected as he walked back in the room. He had just been on the phone calling Mother, Violet, Pansy and the kids to the hospital. Hermione's head snapped up.

"Who?" She snapped quickly, there was a glimmer of hope in her voice.

"Our father, he and mum always made sure I knew their blood types during the war, just in case. Sounds odd I know." Blaise replied looking grim. Hermione head sank down again.

"Well that's useless unless we can get someone to approve him, he's not allowed to give blood." She replied sounding numb again. "I'm going to see my son, thanks for trying guys. Gin will you take me there?" Ginny nodded and stood to wheel her there.

"I'll come with you" I said softly. Hermione's eyes snapped to me as if remembering for the first time that I was there.

"No. I want to have some time alone with my son." I nodded as my heart sank to the ground. This was all my fault. If I hadn't come back then we wouldn't have this issue. I watched the leave as Blaise patted me on the shoulder. I couldn't really blame her for not wanting me there, but it didn't hurt any less.

"She's just in shock mate." He said but it didn't convince me. I had to help, I had to make this better, I sure as hell wasn't just going to sit back and watch my baby struggle.

"Hey so can you guys go and wait in the waiting room?" I said to the others and watched them all file out besides Blaise who stood firmly by my side. I knew he would stay, he always did.

"I'm so sorry this is happening mate. You two really can't catch a break can you?" Blaise said when we were alone. I knew what I had to do, the only way to save my son.

"Take me to your father Blaise." I replied ignoring his shocked face as I stormed from the room he recovered from his shock quickly and in a flash he was on my heels, joining me on my mission.

Mr Zabini was sat in a room on his own staring out of the window when we arrived. The grey room and cold metal bed made the room feel creepy. Anyone who had to live here would go mad.

His shocking blue eyes shot towards me when we entered.

"What the hell do you want traitors." He growled when he saw us.

"What happened to you dad? You use to be the most caring and honest person I knew! Your eyes were soft and you would have done anything for me. No when I come for help for the first time in years you are plagued with evil." Blaise snarled as we sat down.

"My own son betrayed his family name and then comes for help. The irony, you haven't earned my help." Mr Zabini snapped back. I'd had enough of this bickering and leant forward.

"You were controlled for years. Your mind is confused and you don't know who to trust but tell me, how did it feel seeing your daughter for the first time Andrew? How did it feel to know she was alive and safe?" I whispered menacingly at him. I hoped that by touching his emotions I could get him sane enough to help us.

"I…It…She" he stuttered as if lost for words. I could see that he was fighting between his head and heart.

"Tell me Andrew" I put in quietly. His blue eyes softened slightly.

"I was filled with pride at the strong woman my daughter had become. I was overcome with joy that she was alive and I felt relief that I could see her after all these years of grieving her." I breathed deeply. We were getting somewhere at last.

"Do you remember the pain you felt when you were told she had died all those years ago?" I said softly this time. This time Andrew was staring into space and just nodded gently closing his eyes tightly.

"Well Andrew, your daughter will go through that same pain if you don't help us. Our son is dying and the only thing that could save him is your blood. Please give your blood and help us." His eyes flicked to me and again I could see he was struggling.

"Mudbl… bad… can't" He muttered quickly.

"Do you really think we would be here if we had any other choice? Please dad look at me, look me in the eye and tell me you remember how close we use to be? Please dad help us! I know the real you is in there somewhere, I am your son and we need your help. Please" Blaise yelled. Andrew stared into his eyes for a moment and I could see that he was still battling himself internally.

"Okay. For you my son." He replied at last and although strained you could tell that it was the real Andrew fighting through. The Andrew that I knew as a kid.

"Oh god I hope this works." Hermione whispered to the group, breaking our silence at last. We were all in the waiting room. After hours and many tests Andrew Zabini had been given the okay to give blood and at a few minutes to 10pm a very weak Scorpius was rushed into surgery.

Andrew was now back at the mental hospital, a choice of his own. He said he needed to stop battle himself before he could be released. As for us Harry, Ginny, Ron, Lavender and the kids had gone home while Mother, Violet, Pansy, Blaise, Myself and Hermione waited for news. It was midnight and we hadn't heard a thing.

"He's a strong little boy Hermione." Mother whispered across to her trying to sound reassuring but I could hear the strain in her voice.

It was around 1 am when the mediwitch came through. "Malfoy and zabini?" She questioned looking around the waiting room.

We all stood up and I wheeled Hermione forward. "The blood transfusion went well but unfortunately with cases like this there's a big chance that the spell has held and will start contaminating the new blood but all we can do now is wait so if you would like to see the little man follow me." I turned to the others.

"Thanks for being here guys but you can go home. We'll call you the moment anything… changes." I said carefully before Hermione and I followed the Mediwitch to see Scorpius.

"He's so pale." Hermione commented looking at his tiny body once more.

"I'll leave you two alone with him. You're welcome to stay." The mediwitch said calmly before leaving the room.

Hermione and I each took a seat next to each other on the side of his bed.

"Hey little man." I whispered softly. "I wish I could say please don't go baby boy, but I don't think we have much choice in that but son, if you need to go you can go. You are the light of my life but it's okay if you need to go, okay baby boy. If you can't hold on it's okay. Just remember we'll always love you." Hermione cried silently next to me.

"You can go now if you need to Scorp. You've been so strong and you've been so brave. I love you my angel." She whispered through her tears.

We both cried as we held hands tightly and just watched our baby boy. Soon Hermione was asleep on my shoulder and I was struggling to keep my eyes open. "I love you son" I whispered as I drifted off to sleep.

I dreamt of my son as he grew, as he laughed and loved and lived his life to the fullest. I dreamt of all the things my son could miss out on, of the life he should live. I woke with a start as a noise echoed around the room.

"Mione honey wake up quick." I said shaking Hermione. She jumped and looked at me with bleary eyes.

"What's happened, has he gone?" She asked frantically trying to wake herself up properly.

"No dear not at all." I whispered relief flooding through me. Looking at the bed I saw the big violet eyes staring back at me.

"Mumma, Daddy!" My baby boy repeated loudly.

"Oh my baby!" Hermione cried as she jumped forward and kissed his forehead. The mediwitches were in pretty soon checking him over and running tests. I just sat and silently watched my boy, happy to see his violet eyes once more.

Hopefully this was the start of the rest of our lives…

***********Thanks********

OKAY so this is it… one more chapter to go which will of course be like an epilogue, I hope you all have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing for you. All good things must come to an end but I couldn't leave you like this so see you at the epilogue to see if they finally get that happy ending.


	26. EPILOGUE: All was well

Chapter 28

2 weeks later

Draco's p.o.v

At last Scorpius was released from the hospital. The blood transfusion had worked and the spell poisoning him had vanished. I had never been so relieved in my life. Every day I watched his little face grow stronger and stronger and couldn't help the worry I felt that he might get sick again. I couldn't tell Hermione the panic I had about him every day she too needed to fully recover from the emotional stress of the last few days. She had been a little distant lately and I couldn't help thinking she partly blamed me for all that had happened. Truth be told I blamed myself so I wouldn't be shocked if she did too. Ten full days later we could finally take him home and according to the doctor he was back to himself, nonetheless I carried him on my hip like he was made of glass. We were home for ten minutes before he was already sat on the floor with a slightly bigger Reuben. Reuben was being incredibly gentle with him as though he knew what had happened. It was good to be home and I couldn't help but smile as I watched them play.

"You can stop worrying you know Draco." I felt Hermione step past me and carefully she handed a sleeping lyra to me. I smiled softly down at my little girl before finally looking up at Hermione's gorgeous eyes, she had a gentle smile on her lips as she took in her family finally together.

"I understand if you blame me you know." I added finally watching as she sighed slightly leaning against me.

"I'm sorry I've been distant dray, I've spent a year dreaming of this exact moment of you holding your little princess whilst we watch our little dragon play. I'd accepted the idea that would never happen before you came back. All those times I'd stood right here watching the children play and just felt a hole in my heart knowing you should be here too. When Scorp was so ill, I was terrified that it would never happen and that you'd feel the pain that I've felt every day for a year. Sorry I pushed you away but know it's only because of how much I've longed for this exact moment." She explained softly as we watched little Scorpius laughing.

I was once again reminded of how strong the beautiful woman next to me was.

"I love you so much Granger." I replied softly, unable to stop the smile that stuck on my face.

"You have no idea how much I love you Malfoy." She smirked back at me as for the first time we just enjoyed the exact moment that we were stood in.

"Do you know what we can do now?" Hermione asked me after a few moments.

"What's that beautiful?" I asked smiling at her. She was fully healed and I was finally off the crutches meaning today really was the starting point for the rest of our lives. Everything was finally together again.

"We can take this ring and make me a Malfoy, not a phrase I ever imagined saying actually." She laughed wiggling the ring I'd designed for her. I laughed and rolled my eyes.

"I best get used to saying yes to you dear." I replied softly kissing her on the lips as she giggled. "You're so sweet to me" She mumbled against my lips.

**************THE FOLLOWING SUMMER********

"Do you Draco Lucius Malfoy take Hermione Jean Granger Zabini to be your lawfully wedded wife?" I smiled at my blushing bride in her gorgeous strapless gown.

"I do" I smirked as she looked out across our many guests in the grounds of Hogwarts.

"And do you Hermione Jean Granger Zabini take Draco Lucius Malfoy to be you lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do" she smiled brightly.

"Then I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may now kiss the bride." Everyone clapped loudly as I pulled Hermione in for a deep kiss as the crowd clapped and Blaise whistled from the side of me.

We went off to get ready for the reception while everyone else made their way straight there.

"God you're beautiful" I whispered in Hermione's ear as we entered our room specially designed for us to change in today.

"There's something I need to tell you Draco." Hermione said and I noticed how nervous she looked.

"What is it, you know you can tell me anything." I replied taking her hand in mine.

"I'm pregnant" She said quickly. I smirked and pulled her in for another kiss.

"Finally I might see this one actually get born!" Hermione chuckled as she cried happy tears. "I should have guessed you'd be pregnant soon when Ginny said she was pregnant last month." Hermione gave me a quizzical look.

"Remember our lives our "entwined" now so I think we can expect Pansy and Lavender to have kids soon too." I smirked as Hermione laughed rubbing her stomach.

"Come one let's go and enjoy the reception hubby" She smiled leading me towards the great hall.

"Anything for you wifey, plus I think our mother's will flood the place with all the tears they've been crying today if we don't hurry up." We both smirked the true Malfoy smirk.

***********7 months later********

"Twins were bound to happen soon, I can't believe they're here." Hermione said her voice tired. I kissed her forehead as I looked between my stunning children.

"I know you did so well baby and they are so beautiful. Just like you. Although, I am glad I missed the first two births, I don't think I'd have any fingers left if I had been." She blushed and rolled her eyes at me.

"You're so dramatic" She laughed as she looked at our little baby girl.

"What shall we name them?" I asked her softly, still in shock at the little miracles we had made.

"I was thinking Cassie Ambrosia Malfoy for this one." Hermione said softly as she cooed at the little blue eyed baby with jet black hair in her arms.

"That's perfect, I like the name Xavier Corvus Malfoy for this little guy." I replied smiling down, Hermione nodded as we looked at the steel eyed, blonde haired baby in my arms. My little twin.

We both looked at the door as Scorpius came in leading Lyra with him and mother, Violet and Blaise followed. Blaise helped Scorp and Lyra on to the bed and we all sat together. Our perfect little family complete and peaceful at last.

**********11 years later*********

"Scorpius look after your siblings! And Lyra make sure to stand up for Cassie, you know how shy she is." Hermione called as our four children went to board the train aged, 11, 13 and 15.

Scorpius turned around, his violet eyes shone with smiles and his blonde hair flicked softly across his forehead. "Yes mum, see ya dad." He smirked at me, tapping the slytherin crest on his jumper and nodding. I couldn't help but smile at my little dragon, the new prince of slytherin.

"Have a good year son" I waved and watched as he hoped on the train quickly followed by lyra whose hair, now with natural black tips, was in a tight ponytail.

"Bye!" She yelled running onto the train. She was in Gryffindor, just like her mother, the brains of the family.

The twins were the last ones left now. "Dad what if we're in different houses?" Cassie asked looking nervous.

"Your mother was in a different house from her twin and they talked all the time, there isn't much rivalry these days so it doesn't matter if you're in different houses okay. Just be safe and have fun."

Hermione nodded next to me holding my hand tightly, "We love you and we'll right every day." she called as the twins jumped aboard. "We love you too" they replied in unison. They stood by the window and waved until the train was out of sight.

"We did it babe" I whispered kissing her as the weasley's, potters and Zabini's all joined us. She nodded and kissed me back.

"Oh god you two get a room." Ron groaned, even after all these years he still moaned when he could, everyone laughed as we made our way out of the station.

"Come on guys let's all go to ours for dinner." I said to the group as we apparated away, finally all of our nests were empty, and it felt like the strangest thing in the world.

My children were growing up quickly and discovering the world, my wife was as beautiful as ever, I had a great group of friends, our mother's had gone travelling in Egypt and my business was booming. One night changed my life forever back when I was 16 and now I had everything I could ever wish for.

_All was well. _

*************thanks*******

OMG so it's all finished ! I can't believe this story has come to an end so quickly! This chapter was more of an epilogue so I hope you liked the story and I'm already working on the next story!

Thanks for being the best readers and sticking with me I love you guys! Xoxo

As a little treat for those wondering, Cassie was in Hufflepuff and Xavier was in Ravenclaw and the unity of houses was complete solidified in history.

p.s I own nothing but the plot


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